City of Smog
During the winter months, it’s hard to tell whether the sun rises at all in the New Delhi neighborhoods of Sukhdev Vehar.
Enveloped in a thick layer of impenetrable smog, the natural light is blocked
out and a gloomy shadow hangs over the hundreds of high-rise residential flats.
Breathing the air outside triggers waves of nausea and a throbbing headache, while walking up a flight of stairs leaves people breathless.
The mega city of New Delhi, home to approximately 30 million people, is the most polluted capital in the world. Earlier this month, the Air Quality Index, which measures the level of pollutants, exceeded 1300 in Sukhdev Vihar – over 30 times the level set by the World Health Organisation. Pollution in New Delhi is hazardous all year, thanks to largely industrial and vehicular emissions, but it peaks during the winter months when thousands of farmers in surrounding states burn crop stubble to fertilise their soil.
As the pollution levels stored in the city in November the number of daily COVID-19 cases also rose, doubling to more than 7000. This bucked the national trend, with India as a whole seeing half the number of new daily infections from its September peak.
Public health experts are still exploring the link between COVID-19 and air-pollution but initial reports indicate a strong correlation. A Harvard university study of 3000 districts in the United States found the areas experiencing small increases in pollutants also had a large rise in COVID-19 fatalities. In late October, a second study, by a group of German researchers, found 15% of global deaths from the virus would be attributed to long-term exposure to air-pollution.
There has been both a 70% increase in the number of COVID-19 patients and also far more cases where patients have severe symptoms since pollution became to surge in New Delhi, according to Dr Sumit Ray, a critical care doctor at Holy Family Hospital. “ Long-term exposure to air-pollution causes damage to the air sacs and if someone gets a respiratory infection it becomes much more difficult to fight it off because they already have lung damage,” says Ray.
The hospital’s COVID-19 fatality rate has increased from 3.3% between June and September to 5.05% since October 1. Air-pollution can also cause underlying health problems such as heart disease, which in turn can cause the fatality rate to sore.
A three month study in Wuhan, China, found COVID-19 patients with heart disease had a fatality rate of 16.7%, compared with 4% for those without.
The record-breaking pollution levels in Sukhdev Vihar are exacerbated by a waste-to-energy plan that pumps out toxic gases every evening.
“I receive a lot of patience with breathing difficulties, especially in October and November,” Explains Dr M Rehman, who runs a clinic.
“Many are asthmatics and are forced to use inhalers, even the younger generation, and I have seen many people die from pulmonary disorders.”
Fazlul Haq, 78, lies motionless in bed waiting for his daughter to change his oxygen cylinder. He considers himself one of the lucky ones.
Haq, who lives 800m away from the plant, developed interstitial lung disease two years ago and his doctors say there is “no other explanation“ than long-term exposure to pollution.
“Every year my father faces difficulty during the pollution months but this year was the worst for him after he contracted COVID-19,” says it’s daughter, Nausheen Fazal.
Haq spent six weeks battling COVID-19 in intensive care and, to the surprise of doctors, he survived.
Despite growing public outrage, the Delphi government failed to make any change in pollution levels. Politicians are hesitant to limit industrial growth and attempts to curb stubble burning have failed.
The Delhi government did not respond to the questions for comment. The Indian government has warned that the city will see 15,000 new COVID-19 cases daily by December.
“ My lungs were already only working at 30% capacity,“ gasps Haq. “ it is because of the pollution and the government’s neglect of it that people like me are suffering.“
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