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Toxic cauldron: The air we breathe

Updated : April 22, 2020 06:05 PM IST

For the first time in years most of our badly polluted cities reported better Air Quality Index (AQI), clear visibility and reduction in noise levels.

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing us all to stay home, factories shut and vehicles off the roads, we are all breathing cleaner air and seeing bluer skies. Post lockdown for the first time in years most of our badly polluted cities reported better Air Quality Index (AQI), clear visibility and reduction in noise levels. There is a drastic reduction in air pollution globally. It’s time we asked ourselves — is it necessary to live in the toxic cauldron?

We humans have, for too long, taken the atmosphere of our planet for granted. Clean air is a basic human right. However, years of industrialisation fuelled by super-consumerism have resulted in highly polluted air. Polluted air is an indicator of urban and industrial sprawl and of over-consumption. In Europe, the air quality directives made it mandatory to define air quality management plans way back in 1995. India took 25 years more to even feel the need for air quality management plans.

What does the cauldron have? Air pollutants are air toxics that have an impact on human, plant and animal health. The 6 major criteria pollutants are oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulphur, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone and volatile organic carbon(VOC — hydrocarbon). Along with these, we have persistent organic pollutants that stick to airborne aerosols. CO, O3, NOx and Sox are gaseous. PM — are particles of various sizes and usually are airborne in the form of aerosols. Anthropogenic aerosols are haze (usually a mix of VOCs), smoke and particulate matter. One must remember here, that air toxics are separate from greenhouse gases which trap heat and cause global warming but will not cause toxic impact.

Air pollution is difficult to mitigate — once a pollutant is in the air it is costly and difficult to clean up large volumes of air. This is the main difference between air pollution and water/land pollution where containment/remediation is a wee bit easier. Air pollution control is therefore done at source. The main sources of anthropogenic emissions are the burning of fossil fuel, plastic and dust resuspension. We also have the curious case of photochemical smog which is a mixture of pollutants that are formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react to sunlight, creating a brown haze above cities. It tends to occur more often in summer because that is when we have the most sunlight. Ozone is the bi-product of photochemical smog.

Unlike other forms of pollution, we know that air pollutants once released cannot be taken back. The fate of the pollutant depends on the stability of the atmosphere and the stability of the pollutant in the atmosphere. The former dictates how much dilution will happen and the latter determines how long the pollutant will persist. So, we are at the mercy of nature when it comes to atmospheric conditions. The wind and temperature of the atmosphere play a critical role in pollution dilution. Therefore, each region with typical climatic conditions has a unique ability to disperse the pollutants and hence a designated carrying capacity (readability of the air to disperse the pollutants).

If the amount of pollutants generated is high, it overwhelms the natural ability of the air to cleanse itself and the region becomes saturated with air pollution — smog and haze are the outcomes of this.

Air pollution, like smoking, is a slow killer. The impacts, though widely known in scientific circles, do not resonate with the general public. Public health efforts too do not focus deeply on air pollution and efforts to combat it are paltry. India suffers most pollution linked deaths in the world. The report by the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) found pollution to be the largest environmental cause of premature death on the planet, causing 15 percent of all deaths — some 8.3 million people. India leads this with 2.3 million premature deaths linked to air pollution.

Not just deaths, air pollution costs money. Yet our burning economy does not allocate enough money for abatement or public health. Premature births, absenteeism due to respiratory illnesses, and the time spent caring for our young and the old whose lungs cannot take the pollution load as well takes the toll on the economy. NOx in vehicular emissions is linked to asthma in children. The WHO has linked deaths of 100 thousand children in India each year due to PM 2.5.

As per the GAHP report, “Much of the world’s attention is focused on ambient air pollution, especially the smog that often envelops Beijing and Delhi. There is a reason for this. Ambient air pollution and ozone are responsible for 40 percent of all pollution-related deaths or an estimated 3.4 million deaths a year. Add in the tally from indoor air pollution and the count grows to almost 5 million premature deaths caused by breathing bad air. Half of all air pollution-related deaths occur in Chinese and Indian cities.”

Studies have shown that humans exposed to continuous pollution from vehicles or industry have compromised immune systems. A recent study by Harvard in the context of compromised respiratory systems from polluted parts of the US found that coronavirus patients in more polluted parts of the country are likely to die from the illness, compared to those in cleaner areas. Indoor air pollution and elevated levels of particulate pollution have negative impacts associated with corona. Lowering particulate matter in Manhattan would have resulted in fewer COVID deaths to date.

Scaling up on efforts to clean our air needs to begin with awareness. Most people don’t know that air pollution is the silent pandemic that is far more dangerous. The difference is that these are slow deaths (attributed to air pollution) and don’t seem to garner enough investment for public health protection. Tackling air pollution, waste and sanitation in totality is intertwined with sustainable development.

Perhaps the correlation between diminished IQ, birth defects, heart disease, COPD and lung cancer and polluted is not easy to make for the general population. It is perhaps difficult to prioritise pollution mitigation when these linkages are not understood and there are more immediate concerns around basic needs. In relatively prosperous societies, it is easier to demand the right to a healthy environment. So, air pollution impacts on the rich and poor are unequal.

The rich escape in their cars, malls offices and homes which have better air compared to street level air. The poor and middle-class don’t have a choice but to breathe the toxic mix. For those who are on the street, the working class who ride a bike or walk or worst sleep on the street, poor air is a given reality. No murmur or ask for better.

Is air pollution preventable? Yes, it is. Moving to cleaner technologies for industrial processes; moving towards cleaner and greener transportation options; transit-oriented strategies; the greater incorporation of green areas for cleaning the air; and prevention of roadside dust resuspension; planning for walkability; and complete management of waste (garbage and garden/agricultural) will require resources and focussed effort.

Cleaning the air pretty much requires a shift in everything we do — what we eat (organic), how we work (from home), what we buy (organic and local), how we use energy, how we manage our waste (compost, recycle, upcycle), design of homes (ventilated), our parks — the lungs. In short we need to reboot. We also need to vote for responsible representatives and make responsible consumption choices ourselves.

We have a choice — to clean our air or to breathe clean air from a ventilator. For corona, rich and poor are alike and hence perhaps for the first time we can hope the focus shifts to public health and cleaner air. The shift to public health, sanitation management of waste, clean air are needs for one and all. Ignoring this can cost us tremendously both in terms of revenue and health.

Currently, budgets allocated for tackling air pollution at the city and municipality levels are paltry in India. However, consumers (read citizens) moving back to responsible consumption and focusing on the local economy have a huge role to play in the types of gases we release in the air. Whether we continue to brew the toxic gases in the cauldron is completely in our hands. Time is running out and new research points to compounded morbidity for those living for years in poor air. They are far more likely to die if infected by Coronavirus We can’t allow our children gasp for breath — be it slow but equally ominous gasps (air pollution) or fast ones (coronaviruses)!