The city has witnessed drastic deterioration in air quality and doctors will say that respiratory and cardiac problems rise during winter.

The morning drizzle on Thursday may have given Delhiites temporary relief, but air quality in the Capital still leaves no cause for celebration, thanks to dangerous pollution levels being recorded around the city.
The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) had on Wednesday warned that Delhi’s air will be “severely” polluted on Thursday, with levels of particulate matter, both PM2.5 and PM10, reaching 252 microgams per cubic metre and 413 mcgm/cubic metre respectively. This is much more than the safe limits of 60 mcgm/cubic meter for PM 2.5 and 100 for PM10.
The rain, however, led the pollution levels to drop from “severe” to “very poor”. “From midnight to 7 a.m. on Thursday, the air quality was severely comprised. However, the rain did wash away the lower air pollution after that and provided clearer air,” SAFAR chief project scientist Gufran Beig told The Hindu .
The Delhi government’s Environment Department, however, was more optimistic. “The rain dropped the level of pollution drastically in the morning. It’s true that we have a challenge of controlling the pollution levels with Diwali next week, but we have made efforts to curtail the use of firecrackers,” said Environment and Forest Secretary Ashwani Kumar.
According to the National Air Quality Index (AQI), that takes data from 10 monitoring centres, three locations each had “very poor”, “poor” and “moderate” air quality, while there was insufficient data to calculate the AQI for one station.
Environmentalists said this was the time to act, with colder weather soon. Anumita Roychowdhury, the Centre for Science and Environment’s executive director and head of its air pollution control campaign, said: “We need to do something urgently to prevent the city from choking itself. Delhi has already suffered ‘very poor’ air quality from October onwards and the bad news is that winter is going to be tough on the city. Lowered temperature and the lack of wind make the air quality poorer. Overall, the city has witnessed drastic deterioration in air quality and doctors will tell us that respiratory and cardiac problems rise during winters.”
In fact, doctors are already sounding alarm bells.
Neeraj Jain, Chairman, chest medicine at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, agreed that poor air quality was resulting in a rise of number of patients coming in with emergency respiratory problems.
“The weather is harsh for those with compromised lung and heart conditions, and those with compromised immunity,” he said.