Masks for Delhi poor as smog worsens
New Delhi’s homeless will be given cotton masks to help them survive in the world’s most polluted major city, officials said on Monday, although experts said the masks will be useless against deadly smog particles.
Each winter the capital of 20-million chokes through haze so extreme that levels of airborne pollutants eclipse safe limits by more than 30 times.
The poor and homeless suffer the worst, through constant exposure to a toxic brew of car fumes, factory exhaust and construction dust. Measures to curb the smog from reducing heavy goods traffic and firecrackers to banning the use of fire to clear farmers’ fields have failed to clear the skies.
Bipin Rai from Delhi’s city government said that 10,000 face masks will be given “to homeless families, women, patients and children as pollution levels are on the rise”.
But experts said these masks offer little to no protection against the most poisonous pollutants in the air. Particles known as PM2.5 are so small that they can penetrate the heart and cardiovascular system. “These masks are redundant, as fine particles harmful to the human body will not be filtered out,” Vivek Chattopadhyay from the Centre for Science and Environment said.
“It is ineffective, and the government should instead offer medically approved masks.”
Rai, from Delhi’s Urban Shelter Improvement Board, defended the scheme.
“Has any expert who is commenting on the masks and their durability tested them? How can they comment on something they’ve not tried?” he asked.
Levels of PM2.5 measured by the US embassy in Delhi on Monday hit 378 more than 15 times safe limits.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said in 2017 that exposure to air pollution killed 600,000 children around the globe every year, causing diseases including chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease. The WHO report found that children in poorer countries are far more at risk, with 98% of all children under five in lowand middle-income countries exposed to PM2.5 levels above its air quality guidelines.