Air ‘severe’, may improve from Friday

Smog is a mixture of fog, smoke, particulate matter. Man-made due to high pollution level

For a cloud causing low visibility to qualify as smog, there should be enough pollution, smoke, and moisture in air.

The haziness witnessed sometimes between 10am and 8pm is usually just smoke obstructing visibility

It is poisonous and may trigger asthmatic attacks and other breathing complications Smoggy mornings due to high moisture content, particulate matter, lack of winds. Could be a direct result of Diwali, and bursting of firecrackers.

Burning of agricultural residue in

Punjab and Haryana also behind foul air quality. NEWDELHI: The Capital remained covered in thick smog, laden with high level of pollutants which kept air quality in the “severe” category, even three days after Diwali festivities.

Hostile weather conditions like cool temperature and nearly zero wind movement were the major factors identified by experts for pollution level continuing to be on the higher side.

The peak levels of pollution (PM2.5 and PM10), recorded over 10 times the safe limit during the morning hours, gradually came down across monitoring stations as the day progressed.

As of 11am on Wednesday, at Mandir Marg, PM10 reached 743µg/m³ while PM2.5 touched 561µg/m³.

The prescribed standards of PM 2.5 and PM 10 are 60 and 100, respectively. Anything beyond that can harm the respiratory system as the ultra fine particulates can embed deep into the lungs and also enter the bloodstream.

At Punjabi Bagh, PM2.5 clocked 887µg/m³, while it was as 460µg/m³ at Anand Vihar.

Monitoring done by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) showed the Air Quality Index of Delhi at 475.

For the past two days, it was 500 for Delhi as well nearly all the monitoring stations.

The 24-hour average of PM2.5 and PM10 were 348 and 522 micrograms per cubic metre respectively.

AQI will be “severe” on Thursday as well, its forecast said, adding that things will improve from Friday.

SAFAR had earlier forecast that air quality was likely to improve slowly from November 2 but all its monitoring centres in the city recorded severe quality air in the evening hours.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) stations in Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar, RK Puram and Dwarka also recorded severe air quality.

Prolonged exposure to severe category air may affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases while very poor category may cause respiratory illness.

Children, elderly and the sick are considered most vulnerable to the harmful effects of hazardous air.