The air quality index changed from brown (poor) to red (very poor) in seven automated air quality monitoring stations. Exposure to ‘very bad’ air (AQI:301-400) can trigger a range of health problems — from respiratory distress to heart attacks — health experts said.
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The air quality at four stations – Ballygunge, Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) continued to deteriorate to very poor level since morning. Jadavpuri and Rabindra Bharati University (BT Road).
Even at stations like Victoria, Fort William and Ravindra Sarobar, which are located in the green areas of the city, the AQI figures were hovering near very poor. This is the first time that the city’s average air quality has gone from poor to very poor.
With thermal inversion in play, the temperature of the Earth’s surface remains lower than the temperature of the atmosphere in the upper strata, greatly slowing the process of dispersal, leading to a rapid drop in vertical wind velocity. Thus pollutants hang low in the atmosphere at the height of people’s breathing, explained a scientist at WBPCB.
According to environmentalists, AQI is a system to warn the public when air pollution is dangerous. The AQI tracks particulate pollution as well as five other widespread air pollutants such as SO2, NO2, ozone (smog), CO and NH3. “But many educated people don’t care about the major health risks from AQI,” said Sudipto Bhattacharya of Savior and Friends of the Environment.
Senior Pulmonologist Dr Arup Halder said that even if you are healthy, it is not correct to assume that you are safe in such polluted air. “It is better to avoid vigorous activity for long periods of time outside. “The health effects of pollution have worsened over the extended period of the eruption,” said Dr Sanjukta Dutta, an emergency medicine specialist.
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