Air Pollution: 3 in 10 Delhi-NCR Families Have Members With Sore Throat, Breathing Difficulty, Reveals Survey

Air pollution is back to haunt the national capital with the onset of winter and early morning and late-night fog.

On Saturday, Delhi’s Anand Vihar reported PM 2.5 of 326 and PM 10 levels of 654, prompting the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to activate Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan from October 15. GRAP includes measures to control dust, waste management, and ensure vehicular restrictions, with mist-spraying drones to monitor and tackle pollution hotspots.

The Delhi government on Monday also imposed a blanket ban on the sale and use of firecrackers till January 1, 2025, in view of the likely deterioration of air quality in the city during the winter.

To further understand the effects of the deteriorating air quality, LocalCircles conducted a survey which revealed that 36 per cent Delhi-NCR families have one or more members with sore throat, cough and breathing difficulty/asthma due to rising levels of pollution, while 27 per cent have someone with a runny nose/congestion.

The survey received over 21,000 responses from residents of Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. A total of 61 per cent respondents were men while 39 per cent were women.

The survey also sought to know the steps Delhiites were taking or planning to take to combat the issue of air pollution. While only 18 per cent citizens of Delhi-NCR said they will use air purifiers to reduce the impact of pollution, a large majority said they would just live with it by increasing the intake of immunity foods and drinks. A total of 22 per cent respondents are planning to travel for some part of the next one month. It is also likely that many have planned travels for Diwali which also allows them to get away from peak pollution days in Delhi-NCR when AQI has touched 1000 in the past.

Year after year for the last decade, AQI levels in the region have been touching 500-1000 between October 15 and December 1, causing devastating long-term impact on the health of residents and no concrete solutions have been implemented to address this at a structural, policy and enforcement level.

Emissions from transportation account for approximately 19.2 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution, according to the Centre’s Decision Support System for Air Quality Management in Delhi.

Another major contributor to the worsening air quality is stubble burning in neighbouring states. Satellite data on Wednesday reported 99 fire incidents in Punjab, 14 in Haryana, 59 in Uttar Pradesh, and one in Delhi.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.