25 days of bad air in Noida poses a health emergency
NOIDA: Despite slight improvement in ventilation the day before, pollution levels in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad spiked again on Thursday, even as the air quality of the three cities has remained in the ‘verypoor’ and ‘severe’ categories the past 15 days in a row.
While the air quality index of Noida saw a slight improvement, the overall particle pollutant levels spiked, while air qualities of both Greater Noida and Ghaziabad continued to deteriorate.
According to records from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Noida, also among the most polluted cities in the country in January for two days, has so far this year seen only two days of ‘moderate’ air quality index (AQI) and 25 days of dangerous air quality – six days of ‘severe’, 13 days of ‘very poor’ and six days of ‘poor’ category AQI.
According to CPCB, prolonged exposure to polluted air leads to breathing discomfort as well as respiratory illnesses to some, while ‘severe’ air impacts even those who are healthy.
The AQI of the three cities had been oscillating between the ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories since January 13, while the best air quality the three cities saw was on January 4 when AQI was in the ‘moderate’ category. According to the records assessed from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the three cities did not see ‘satisfactory’ or ‘good’ AQI despite five rainy days.
Analysts said pollution levels may further deteriorate towards January 31.
“Thursday saw a further drop as the wind directions changed temporarily from north-easterly to easterly during the afternoon hours. When the wind directions change, there is also stagnancy in its speed, and thus the ventilation stops. Due to this, the dispersion of pollutants stopped and the emissions led to the accumulation of particles, thereby worsening the air quality,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.
According to the CPCB, the AQI of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, on Thursday was 338 against 342 a day earlier.
Greater Noida’s AQI was 318 against 300 a day earlier. The AQI of Ghaziabad was 359 against 357 a day earlier.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is considered ‘very-poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.
The average volume of major pollutant particulate matter (PM) PM2.5 also spiked to almost four times the standard.
The average PM2.5 for Noida on Thursday was 236.31 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/ m3) against 190.45µg/m3 a day earlier.
The average PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 233.2µg/m3 against 200.64µg/m3 a day earlier. The PM2.5 level for Ghaziabad was 221.06µg/m3, against 209.21µg/m3 a day earlier.
The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60µg/m3.
According to the System of air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR), no significant improvement in air pollution is expected immediately, while the AQI may further deteriorate by Sunday.
“Surface winds are calm and forecasted to improve over the next two days; wind direction is forecasted to be north-westerly. A marginal improvement in ventilation index is forecasted for the next two days; AQI is likely to marginally improve and the lower end of the ‘verypoor’ category for the next two days. AQI is forecasted to marginally deteriorate towards the middle-end of the ‘very-poor’ category on January 31,” said the SAFAR statement on Thursday.