Despite bus strike, pollution level spikes
A large number of smokespewing buses gone off the roads over the 11 days due to the strike by RTC employees but the air pollution levels continue to be high. The Telangana State Pollution Control Board say it is because of the surge in the number of private vehicles taking to the streets to compensate for the buses.
“When there is a bus strike, most people tend to bring out their own vehicles to travel,” said a senior environmental scientist of the TSPCB requesting anonymity. Buses carry anywhere between 30 lakh and 34 lakh passengers a single day.
As of Tuesday evening, the highest pollution was recorded at the Nehru Zoological Park and Sanathnagar. These areas had particulate matter (PM 2.5) reading of 161 micrograms per metric cube and 122 micrograms per metric cube respectively. The Central Pollution Control Board pegs the safe limit at 40 micrograms per metric cube.
The levels were high in the evening and in the morning the levels were high at Bahadupura near the Zoo Park.
“There has been a lot of pollution, indicating the importance of public transport in keeping the air quality from deteriorating. This kind of pollution is finer in nature and comes from road dust,” he said. Since the city was lashed by rains for the last two weeks, the dust had settled on the roads. Now that the rain has receded, it is rising into the wind, he added.
The private pollution monitoring agency Plume Labs noted: “The air has reached a high level of pollution, higher than the maximum limit for 24 hours established by the World Health Organisation.”
The higher levels is due to the movement of people for the festival season. The particulate matter hangs on in the environment for a longer period of time due to the cloud cover and also the setting of the winter season. The dispersement of this matter is not fast and that leads to asthma attacks and other respiratory diseases.
In view of the high levels of PM 2.5, people have to take precautions before they step out of their homes.
Air pollution is now the third highest cause of death among all health risks, ranking just above smoking in India. This is a combined effect of outdoor particulate matter (PM) 2.5, ozone and household air pollution stated medical experts who ask people to check before going out.