Of India's 280 cities/towns where air quality is monitored, none met the World Health Organization's (WHO) safe levels of PM 10-20 μg/m³-the report said
People living in eight of every 10 Indian cities breathe toxic dust particles, PM 10, at levels exceeding national safety limits, according to a recent report.
National capital Delhi has the worst air in the country, said the report, Airpocalypse, released by Greenpeace India, an advocacy. At a time when India is already slipping to meet the renewable targets the budget 2018 overall allocations to the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has declined by 3.26 billion or 6% from last year’s Rs 54.73 billion.
Of India’s 280 cities/towns where air quality is monitored, none met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe levels of PM 10–20 μg/m³–the report said.
The Indian annual safe level for PM 10–airborne particles seven times finer than a human hair that can sicken or kill people by entering their lungs–is three times more lenient at 60 μg/m³.
To prove air pollution is not limited to Delhi, the report analysed air quality data of 280 cities with a population of 630 million–53% of the total population of the country.
Of them, 550 million–9 of every 10 Indians–live in areas exceeding the national standard for PM 10, found the report.
Similarly, every three out of 10 Indians live in areas where air pollution levels are more than twice the stipulated standards, said the report.
“Apart from this, 580 million Indians live in districts with no air quality data available,” the report said.
“Only 16% of the population inhabiting the districts (where air quality is being monitored) have real-time air quality data available,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner, Greenpeace India, and an author of the report. “This portrays how inhumanly we are responding to the national health crisis in front of us.”
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