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Pollution has a huge effect on respiratory health especially on people with lung diseases, asthma as their disease worsens, AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria warned on Friday as Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) a day after Diwali slumped to poorest in five years.
Pollution can also lead to more severe cases of Covid, Guleria said, adding that people should wear masks as it will help in protection from both Covid and pollution.
The morning after Diwali, residents of New Delhi woke up under a blanket of toxic smog and breathed in the most dangerously polluted air of the year so far, after revellers, as usual, defied a fireworks ban.
New Delhi has the worst air quality of all world capitals, but even by its sorry standards Friday's reading was extra bad, as people paid the price for celebrating India's biggest festival in the noisiest, and most smoky way.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) surged to 451 on a scale of 500 - the maximum recorded this year - indicating "severe" conditions that affect healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases, according to the federal pollution control board's guidance.
Meanwhile, Fortis Hospital Chairman said AQI levels are especially dangerous for the elderly and those with lung-heart problems and that itself predisposes to further chest infections, viral infections and cases of pneumonia.
Covid-recovered patients, too, are vulnerable, said Dr Ashok Seth.
The AQI measures the concentration of poisonous particulate matter PM2.5 in a cubic metre of air. In Delhi, a city of nearly 20 million people, the PM2.5 reading on Friday averaged 706 micrograms, whereas the World Health Organization deems anything above an annual average of 5 micrograms as unsafe.
Airborne PM2.5 can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as lung cancer. And, in India, toxic air kills more than a million people annually.
Stubble fires accounted for up to 35% of New Delhi's PM2.5 levels, according to data from SAFAR's monitoring system, which falls under the federal Ministry of Earth Sciences
A rare spell of clear skies in October due to intermittent rains and winds had helped Delhiites breathe their cleanest air in at least four years.
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