Deepak Rajak struggles to breathe at Delhi’s first clinic dedicated to pollution-related diseases.

The 64-year-old man’s asthma had worsened in recent days, and his daughter immediately took him to the clinic, worried that his health was rapidly deteriorating.

Sitting in the waiting room, Rajak told CNN he was “out of breath” and couldn’t stop coughing.

“It’s impossible to breathe. “I just arrived by bus and felt suffocated,” he says.

The specialist clinic at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohiya (RML) hospital was set up last year to treat the growing number of patients affected by dangerous air pollution, which worsens every winter in India’s capital.

Outside, a throat-burning veil of toxic smoke has settled over the city since late last month, turning day into night, disrupting flights, blocking visibility from buildings and endangering the lives of millions of people.

As of last week, nowhere else on the planet had air this harmful to human health, according to global air quality monitors.

The situation has worsened so much that Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, who goes by the same name, declared a “medical emergency” as authorities closed schools and encouraged people to stay at home.

But that’s not an option for Rajak, who relies on his dry cleaning business to provide for his family.

“What can I do? I have to leave home to go to work,” he said. “If I don’t earn money, how will I eat? When I leave the house, my throat becomes completely blocked. In the evening, it feels like I’m lifeless.”

Rajak was hospitalized once this year after smoke aggravated his asthma.

With the dangerous pollution not expected to clear up, her daughter Kajal Rajak says she fears she will have to be hospitalized again; this is an added financial burden when we’re already struggling to pay for inhalers and expensive diagnostic tests.

He says even taking his father to the clinic is dangerous.

“You can’t see what’s in front of you,” says Kajal. “We were at the bus stop and couldn’t even see the bus number or if the bus was coming; it was so blurry.”

‘Like pepper in my eyes’

Pollution levels in some parts of Delhi this week crossed 1,750 on the Air Quality Index, according to IQAir, which monitors global air quality. A reading above 300 is considered hazardous to health.

On Wednesday, the value of PM2.5, the smallest and most dangerous pollutant, was 77 times higher than safe levels set by the World Health Organization.

CNN has reached out to India’s Ministry of Forest Environment and Climate Change for comment.

When PM2.5 is inhaled, it can go deep into the lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. asthma, heart and lung disease, cancer and other respiratory diseases, as well as cognitive impairments in children.

CNN spoke to about a dozen Delhi residents last week; Many said they had difficulty breathing due to pollution. Some reported feeling suffocated because the harmful air made their eyes burn and their throats itch.

“It feels like hot pepper to my eyes,” said Muhammad Ibrahim, a long-time car driver in the city, adding that his chest constantly aches from working outside under pollution all day long.

“When I come home in the evening and wash my hands and face, black stuff comes out of my nose. This has never happened before,” said Ibrahim.

Like Rajak, Ibrahim cannot afford to stop working even though his health is at risk.

“How will I feed myself if I don’t go to work? How will I pay my rent? “I am a poor man,” he said.

Some vulnerable residents say it has become difficult to survive in Delhi. Aditya Kumar Shukla, 64, a retired Indian Air Force member, said he tries not to go out on dirty days.

“You can’t do anything to save yourself from pollution, even if you are inside the house, the pollution is also coming in because the air is so polluted,” he told CNN from Delhi’s Batra hospital, where he is being treated. asthma.

Shukla said he has been hospitalized three times this year and would move away from the city if he could.

“It’s stressful and very dangerous, but where can I go at this stage?” he said. “This makes me so angry, I want to leave Delhi but there are no facilities in India specifically (for those with asthma and lung disease).”

At the pollution clinic, Dr. Amit Jindal says he and his colleagues have seen a marked increase in patients with chest and lung problems since pollution levels have skyrocketed. He confirmed that the increase was directly related to smoke.

Jindal says patients complain of persistent cough, chest and lung problems, and stinging eyes, but like Rajak and Shukla, those with health conditions or those who work outside are more vulnerable.

Dr., a pulmonologist at Batra hospital. Even non-smokers develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung condition that restricts airflow and causes breathing problems, says Gaurav Jain.

“Many patients who chronically inhale pollutants and work near dusty areas develop COPD,” he says. “His lungs are unhealthy; “They suffer from shortness of breath at a much earlier age than the normal population, and their risk of lung cancer increases.”

long term crisis

Delhi has been struggling with high levels of air pollution for over two decades.

Air quality worsens every year as summer heat gives way to cooler months. Windless days mean smog from agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, and traffic whizzing through the city skies.

Air quality worsens each year as summer heat gives way to cooler months and smoke from agricultural waste fires, coal-fired power plants and traffic fills the skies.

India’s pollution authority on Sunday said several parts of Delhi had “severe+” air quality and was pushing to alleviate the smog, with emergency measures in place including halting non-essential truck movement and construction work.

Authorities are also sprinkling water and dust removal agents on the roads and stepping up road sweeping efforts.

But experts say these annual efforts are only temporary measures that do not combat the problem. The main causes of air pollution.

“From the standpoint of actual action to reduce emissions at the source, it has been very limited, and I can say with fair confidence that the intensity of the government’s response to reduce these dangerous pollution levels does not match the intensity of the emergency we face,” environmental analyst Sunil Dahiya said.

In 2019, the government of India launched the National Clean Air Program to improve ambient air quality in cities, and several other committees have been set up at both national and state levels to combat air pollution.

But analysts say governments are focusing more on emergency response rather than sustained efforts to improve air quality. Dahiya said burning stubble during the winter harvest season increases pollution levels, but pollution needs to be addressed throughout the year to solve the crisis.

“We need to work on systematic and comprehensive actions that will reduce pollution at its source. This means we need to start talking about how much and in which geography it spreads in terms of air pollution from the transportation sector, the energy sector, industry, waste.” said Dahiya.

At the clinic, Kajal Rajak is worried about her father’s deteriorating health condition, which is causing him difficulty breathing and walking. He is angry but says getting angry won’t solve the problem.

“The government needs to do something”

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