Low visibility due to thick layer of smog post Diwali celebrations in Noida.
People with chronic diseases and children are more vulnerable to air pollution, said Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta Hospitals on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview with news agency ANI, Dr Trehan said, "Air pollution is not only affecting lungs but also other parts of the body. Each person who has some chronic problems like heart disease will suffer hugely. Pollution directly affects the breathing of a person where you are taking in all these toxins to your lungs. Then they set up a full reaction in your body where your blood pressure can go up, your heartbeat can go up if you are already suffering from a condition of heart attacks."
"People are complaining of headaches, breathing problems, especially who have had asthma and other chronic lung diseases," he added.
Dr Trehan also raised concern over the vulnerable effects of air pollution on Children's health."The younger children are very vulnerable. They are at the stage when their brain is developing and nitric toxins that come out of all the emissions affect their brain development. So I think the consequence must be taken into its entirety," he emphasised.
He called for decisive and concrete measures to contain the recurrent problem."This is happening year after year and around this time every year, we have a discussion like this. But unfortunately, it has never been corrected or addressed. The decisive action needed to be taken so that does not happen again. Because when you are exposed to something like this, and people suffer, that damage is permanent," he said.
The national capital saw no significant improvement in the quality of air as the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi remained in the 'severe' category on Saturday.
According to the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the AQI of Delhi (overall) stood at 437, wherein the concentration of PM 2.5 was 318, while that of PM 10 was reported to be 448.
Meanwhile, the pollution levels in the National Capital Region (NCR), namely Noida and Gurugram, was also worrisome. Noida reported AQI in the 'hazardous' category at 523, while the air quality in Gurugram was at the upper end of the 'severe' category at 469
(With ANI inputs)
