The culprit is known as PM 2.5. 60 ppm is considered the maximum safe level. Parts of Delhi have hit 999 ppm. PM 2.5 is especially dangerous because the particles can be absorbed in the lungs and then pass into the bloodstream. From there the particles can breach the blood-brain barrier.
Young people are particularly vulnerable to PM 2.5 pollution and the impacts are widespread. Several recent articles confirm that half of Delhi's school kids have stunted lung development and will never completely recover. It's a story repeated in other Indian mega-cities.
Which raises the question of why organizers went ahead with this 10K race, especially when some of the kids obviously lack even rudimentary face mask protection.
ABCs
ReplyDeleteAtmospheric Brown Clouds
can be found over every Asian city and most of the Indian subcontinent
But hey: they are ameliorating global warming so....
ReplyDeleteThe damage they're inflicting on their younger generations foretells a public health catastrophe in the making. What are their leaders thinking? How large a chunk of their population do they consider expendable as the price of industrialization?
Not that long ago!!
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/6/newsid_3251000/3251001.stm
I remember it well! ouch!
We are supposed to learn from history.
The ruthless and greedy would not agree.
I cannot imagine the head of Tata joining this run.
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Motors
TB
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence. Just yesterday my daughter was asking about the British killer smog of the early 60s.
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ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence..
ReplyDeleteAh; those were the days.
I remember passengers walking in front of buses with a newspaper in hand guiding the bus as the driver could not see the curb.
We could not hang out washing to dry as it came in dirtier than it went out!
In a local village they experienced many more deaths than usual due to the smog; yet we did not realise the cause.
In that same village a friend of mine was the new gravedigger ( no joke)
He was shunned and blamed for the rise in deaths as he was payed by the grave.
Strange days indeed.
TB
TB, I'm deeply offended that you would mock gravediggers. I did a stint as gravedigger for the municipal corporation of Flin Flon, Manitoba in my youth. It was a noble calling although not the sort of thing that attracts admiring females. I could tell you a few stories.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you have NetFlix they're running a series, "The Crown," about young Elizabeth from princess to queen. Episode 4 deals with Churchill and the killer smog of 1962.
An hour at the Crow and gate and I am sure we would be p88ing ourselves with laughter.
ReplyDeleteTrue story.
My wife and I shared many a beer with two brothers who were grave diggers.
Visually they were tall. slim, aged and could have appeared in a Hitchcock movie.
These brothers relished the opportunity to measure up potential 'clients' in the middle of the pub.
Looking at my slightly built wife they, tape measure in hand, said.
EEEE; it would not take much to put her down would it!
This was during the days when we had real professional workmen..
TB