Delhi records over 200,000 respiratory illness cases due to toxic air

NEW DELHI: New Delhi recorded more than 200,000 cases of acute respiratory illnesses at six state-run hospitals between 2022 and 2024, government numbers showed, highlighting the adverse effects of toxic air on health.

Delhi, with its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents, is regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals.

India’s health ministry told parliament on Tuesday that air pollution was one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments.

“Analysis suggests that increase in pollution levels was associated with increase in number of patients attending emergency rooms,” junior health minister Prataprao Jadhav said in a written reply. 

More than 30,000 people with respiratory illnesses had to be hospitalised in the three years.

Acrid smog blankets Delhi’s skyline each winter, when cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.

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Levels of PM2.5 – cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream – sometimes rise to as much as 60 times the UN’s daily health limits.

A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.

The United Nations children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.

The health ministry, however, added that air pollution could not alone be blamed for the hospitalisations. 

“Health effects of air pollution are synergistic manifestation of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc,” it said.