India Gate records AQI of 399
NEW DELHI: Delhi’s air quality remained in the severe category on Thursday morning, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 482 at 8.01am. Because of the increased pollution, they are developing respiratory symptoms in terms of cough, irritation of the throat, nasal irritation, and shortness of breath, we are also seeing patients who have previously been asymptomatic, but now,.
Dr Saurabh Mittal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at AIIMS, Delhi, said, “Since AQI has increased, we are seeing patients who have prior respiratory problems, but now they are coming with increased symptoms and exacerbations, for which we need to increase their medications, like their inhaler doses have to be increased, and some patients need the addition of new medications such as oral steroids also to reduce their cough. Explaining the factors contributing to the pollution, Mittal said, “It’s a multifactorial problem. Several parts of the national capital continued to record high pollution levels. So those patients also need some kind of treatment or decongestants for symptom relief… There has been an increase in people actually calling us… I would say that we anticipate that this number is probably going to increase in the next couple of weeks… It’s not a one-time or one-day problem. Of course, weather contributes significantly to it; as the winter weather appears, the condensation happens. Of course, vehicular emissions, construction, stubble burning – all of these things contribute to a larger extent. But individual contribution is very difficult to kind of quantify. But yes, if we reduce all of them, it’s likely that we’ll have some relief from the problem.”
Seven monitoring stations recorded AQI levels above 400, falling in the severe category, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. He also assured that necessary action was being taken. Amid the deterioration in Delhi’s air quality, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on Tuesday that the Centre’s air quality panel was continuously monitoring meteorological conditions, including wind direction, wind speed and the movement of air.