For the first time ever, more than 1,800 public elementary schools in India’s capital were closed yesterday to protect children from exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution.
The decision affected more than 1 million children.
A thick, acrid smog has settled over the capital over the past week, a combination of smoke from burning crops in surrounding agricultural states, fireworks on the Hindu festival of Diwali, dust and vehicle emissions.
Photo: AFP
Levels of the most dangerous particles PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter — reached 600 micrograms per cubic meter in different parts of the city last week, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee said.
Sustained exposure to that concentration of PM2.5 is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day, said Sarath Guttikunda, director of Urban Emissions, an independent research group.
The particles are small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of stroke and heart failure, and can cause severe respiratory problems including asthma and pneumonia.
Conditions in the metropolis, home to about 20 million people, were particularly bad last week because there was little wind and the cloud of pollutants was “just going round and round,” Guttikunda said.
Teachers and parents said the effects on children were visible.
Meenakshi Sahni, principal of the Modern School, closed her private school because of air pollution for the first time on Friday and advised parents via text message to keep their children indoors. There was “widespread coughing” among students and faculty members last week, she said.
“You could actually feel that there was something weighing down on them physically,” Sahni said. “Even at the gathering in the auditorium, you could feel as if somebody is strangling you.”
Foreigners and Indian elites have expressed growing alarm about winter air pollution in recent years, and some embassies have begun discouraging families with children from moving there.
However, this year is the first time Indian schools have taken such precautions. As they waited to pick up children after school on Friday, parents described an array of their children’s symptoms, including burning eyes, incessant coughing and congestion that does not clear.
Seema Sansanwal, 38, said when she takes her three-year-old son to the doctor, the doctor “tells us, ‘Go out for an excursion and leave the city for some days, and he will be fine,’ instead of diagnosing.”
Poonam Tokas, 35, said she could not believe her eyes at the smog on Monday, the day after Diwali, and has forbidden her children from playing outside until it clears.
“We are going to buy masks this evening,” she said. “But I do not think anyone can save us from the wrath of nature.”
Indu, a municipal councilor from South Delhi and a member of the municipal corporation’s education committee, said it was the first time the city had taken such measures.
“We took stock of how bad the smog and pollution level had reached,” said Indu, who uses only one name. “Even doctors are advising against going for walks. Television channels are presenting reports showing that pollution is as bad as smoking two dozen cigarettes.”
She said that they are “hoping weather conditions will improve on Monday [tomorrow],” allowing the schools to reopen.
“At least children would have stayed away from the polluted outdoors over the weekend,” she said.
Keeping children at home reduces their level of activity and lessens their exposure to air pollution, especially in areas where vehicle emissions are at their highest, Guttikunda said.
However, he added that the air quality inside a house often was not much better than outside, unless doors and windows were closed and sealed.
“If you open them for even half a minute, it is gone,” he said.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS