Because of the pollution, I withdrew my teenage girls some years back from playing basketball
\n NEW DELHI
\nNew Delhi woke to a thick layer of toxic smog engulfing the city on Thursday, with residents afraid to step outside as the air quality deteriorated to severe levels.
\nPollution in the Indian capital and surrounding areas was in the severe category for the second day in a row, with some areas reaching an Air Quality Index score of 461, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. On the AQI scale from 0 to 500, good air quality is represented by levels below 50, while levels above 300 are dangerous.
\nThe severe pollution forced many residents to remain indoors to avoid getting sick.
\n\u201cFor the past two days, it has been particularly bad. I have stopped working out and walking in the open. I am doing basic exercises at home. Children are also falling sick,\u201d said Sunieta Ojha, a lawyer in Delhi.
\nBhavreen Kandhari, an activist in south Delhi, said it was \u201cheartbreaking\u201d that her children had to grow up in such conditions.
\n\u201cIt feels so disappointing, it is getting worse. I am trying to make things better so that my children don\u2019t face this,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThere is no running, no walking. Because of the pollution, I withdrew my teenage girls some years back from playing basketball.\u201d
\nAccording to IQAir, a Swiss-based Air Quality Index, monitoring group, the Indian capital was the world\u2019s second most polluted city on Thursday, after nearby Lahore, the capital of Punjab province in Pakistan.
\n\u201cThe air pollution levels are already in the severe category and it\u2019s highly toxic to breathe in,\u201d said Shambhavi Shukla, clean air and sustainable mobility program manager at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.
\nThe main pollutant, she said, was PM 2.5, particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 microns \u2014 about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
\n\u201cThe concentration of these particles is extremely high right now,\u201d she said. \u201cEven a healthy person exposed to this kind of air will have trouble in breathing, so that\u2019s a common thing that they will start developing some breathing issues.\u201d
\nThe sources of Delhi pollution were local \u2014 vehicles, construction sites, residential cooking, and waste burning \u2014 and those from neighboring areas \u2014 mainly the annual fires in India\u2019s northwest and southeast, as farmers clear stubble to prepare fields to plant wheat.
\n\u201cIn the last two days what is also happening is that there is no wind, so there is no movement (of the air),\u201d Shukla said, explaining that the pollution brought earlier from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which had accumulated in Delhi, was also trapped as a result of the colder weather, which prevented the pollutants from rising and dispersing.
\n\u201cThere is a prediction that in the next three days we will again go back to the very poor air category … As soon as the wind picks up, this pollution will start dispersing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Because of the pollution, I withdrew my teenage girls some years back from playing basketball NEW DELHI New Delhi woke to a thick layer of toxic smog engulfing the city on Thursday, with residents afraid to step outside as the air quality deteriorated to severe levels. Pollution in the Indian capital and surrounding areas was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-443657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n