"The severe designation indicates potentially serious health impacts for people with impaired immune systems, and negative affects even for healthy people, according to India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The emergency measures were announced after Delhi's average Air Quality Index (AQI) sharply rose to 425. An AQI between 400 and 450 is categorized as "severe" and, as a norm, requires authorities to implement emergency measures under the government's graded pollution response plan."
"In a first, hundreds of people protested against the bad air quality at Delhi's India Gate over the weekend. Several protesters wore gas masks as a symbolic act of protest and held up banners, including one that read: "I miss breathing." Earlier this month, one of the city's top pulmonologists, Dr. Gopi Chand Khilnani, urged people with health problems who can afford to temporarily leave Delhi to do so."
Delhi authorities urged elementary schools to hold classes online, banned construction, and asked people to work from home after air pollution reached the 'severe' category. The Central Pollution Control Board classifies AQI between 400 and 450 as 'severe', indicating serious health impacts for immunocompromised people and effects even for healthy individuals. Delhi's average Air Quality Index rose sharply to 425, triggering emergency measures under the graded pollution response plan. Annual pollution spikes are driven by farm waste burning and seasonal climatic conditions, and activists say authorities have not done enough. Hundreds protested at India Gate wearing gas masks and holding banners, and a pulmonologist advised vulnerable patients who can afford it to leave Delhi for several weeks.
Read at Cbsnews
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