Delhi smog: 'My eyes are stinging'
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Hello, I'm Sumi Somaskanda. From the BBC World Service, this is The Global Story. Today, the smog surging to dangerous levels in India and Pakistan. Fires, cars and industrial pollution are a major problem.

all factors causing a huge smog cloud across South Asia. It's now so big, it can be seen from space. In today's episode, we find out how the quality of the air we breathe contributes directly to millions of deaths worldwide. Air pollution affects everyone. So are governments acting fast enough to limit it and save lives?

With me today is Devina Gupta, who has presented programs and covered business stories for the BBC. And you're joining us from among the smog right now in Delhi, aren't you? Yes, Sumi, I'm trying to breathe easy here. Yeah, please do. Trying very hard.

We're glad that we could have you on today, Davina. And we also have Dr. Gary Fuller from Imperial College London's medical department. He studied air quality and its health impacts across the world and is the author of the book, quote, The Invisible Killer, The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution. Gary, you're in Brighton. That's a seaside town, right? So I imagine the air is pretty fresh and clean there. Yeah.

It certainly is today, but not all of the time. Well, let's talk about what's happening right now in Delhi and Pakistan.

A blanket of toxic smog has covered the city of 30 million people. Thick smog in New Delhi, India is intensifying and leading officials there to declare a public health emergency. This is one of the most polluted cities in the world and you can just smell the smoke in the air. Smog chokes New Delhi's air almost every winter. Divina, you are from Delhi. You grew up there. What does it look like right now outside your window? What does it smell like? What does it feel like?

It's almost 9 p.m. local time here, so it's pretty dark outside. But while growing up, November would be a month where, you know, the cold just sets in. And this time we would just be finishing our dinner and families would go out for walks.

You could see people walking in my neighborhood, walking around after dinner, chit-chatting. But right now, everybody's indoors. There is a thick blanket of dust and smoke and water.

And as I look out, I can see just below the lamppost, you can see those tiny particles. And it's like you can't smell anything. There's a bitter taste in my mouth. Just before coming to the show, I had to have a cough drop candy because my throat has been feeling very dry. I've been out and about in the city talking to people about air pollution, reporting this urgent health crisis. And my eyes were stinging.

I was wearing a mask, but that didn't do enough. And just to tell people about how bad it is on the air quality index today, it's somewhere between 400 to 420 in West Delhi, where I stay. And this is a measurement of 2.5 particulate matter, which can get into your lungs and cause various kind of health diseases.

It is multiple times the limit which has been set as a safe limit for the World Health Organization. And if you look at an estimate of a report, I'm actually smoking between 15 to 20 cigarettes in a day just because I'm breathing this air. That is dramatic. Gary, listening to what Devina is describing, she's talking about these particles you can even see in the air. What is smog?

Well, what Davina's breathing in at the moment are really, really tiny particles, far smaller than the size of a human hair. And yes, Davina, you're absolutely right. They can get down inside your lungs and they can spread elsewhere in your body.

It's really interesting hearing you describe the smog. My family are from London and my dad and my mum have many stories about what London smog was like in the 1940s and 1950s when you really just couldn't see the other side of the street. It would be full of awful smells and then as you described the coughing and the irritation with your eyes. What makes up these particles that you're describing, Gary?

At the moment, Delhi, and it's not just Delhi, it's large parts of northern India and it spreads into Pakistan as well, are measuring a lot of particles that really come from the burning of agricultural waste. So this is agricultural stubble that's burnt a lot at this time of year. The easiest way to think of it is think of it like breathing in smoke.

It's not always like this in Delhi. There's lots of other sources of air pollution. But at the moment, what's giving us this really serious peak on top of our already very serious problem is this agricultural burning. Davina, you've been speaking to people in Delhi, you said, as you've been out reporting. What are they telling you? A lot of them have unfortunately normalized their Sumi.

And it is true in my family as well. We've been living in Delhi. I was born in this place. I'm 38 years old now. My parents lived in this and it's their second generation. So we've all been part of this city. And children of my brother were four years and six year old. And we live in a joint family. They're indoors. Their schools have been closed. They're doing online classes and they can't go out to park to play.

They're irritable. They're wheezing. They're coughing. My own parents were senior citizens now. They've stopped their morning walk, but they haven't stopped going to work because they would wear a mask and just go about on their day as if, you know, it's part of our daily life. When I go out and speak to people to ask them, especially those daily wagers who have to work outdoors.

Somebody just recently told me who was a rickshaw driver saying that he's drinking more water as he goes about his day. He spends 12 hours in his e-rickshaw. A security guard told me that he is regularly getting fever at night because he's outdoors through the day and

Auto rickshaw driver told me that how his clothes get all black and sooty when he goes back home. A food delivery boy told me that he wears a mask, but he has to be on his bike to deliver food from one place to the other because a lot of people are now working from home, those who can, which means that these delivery services are now much in demand.

And he says he doesn't have any other option but to do this work. And even with the mask on, he's been taking days off because he gets sick the rest of the days. So it's not something that is stopping life here because life has to go on. But the consequences are quite visible on their health and productivity. And the BBC has heard from people in Delhi reflecting just what you've been saying, Divina.

I put a mask on my face but I couldn't breathe. My throat itches and my clothes get dirty and the face is covered with dust all over because of pollution. I come in every day at 6am with my cart to sell vegetables. Today, because of this pollution, there are very few customers and there is a feeling of dust getting in my eyes.

It's so uncomfortable, but this is my job so I have to do it, otherwise where will I get the money from? 75% of my business is gone. I'm planning to go back to my village if this situation continues. I drive this rickshaw and stay on the road for over 12 hours each day and today since the morning my eyes are burning.

I drink hot tea and water, but my body doesn't feel any different. My eyes are stinging and I've been coughing, but I am a labourer, so I can't sit at home. I have to work. I think the consequences are, you know, a lot more wide-ranging. You know, we know from...

year-round air pollution experienced across India that an estimated somewhere around 1.7 million people are dying early in India because of the air pollution that they're breathing. And it's not just this smog that you're having at the moment in this window of about four weeks of agricultural burning. It's the smog that people are

are experiencing day in, day out. It is having a harmful effect on people's health. It's having a harmful effect certainly on young people as they are developing the growth of their lungs, for instance, and particularly on the elderly as well. We'll come back to some of those health implications in a little bit. But Divina, we're seeing similar problems in Pakistan, aren't we?

Yes, and it is unfortunate because the region of Pakistan, especially the city of Lahore, is witnessing a similar situation. It's a city with 14 million people. Again, very much a bustling city. It's also seeing the height of their wedding season, the celebratory period, which is

was on, but now there have been restrictions there because of the smog that has captured the city. And for example, now the government there has put out strict restrictions on banning entry to parks, zoos. They have also restricted outdoor restaurants from putting barbecue, anything that can have smoke in the air. And it's a disruptor in life that people in Delhi have been seeing for the past decade or so, which is getting worse.

Gary, some experts say the conditions in the region are actually going to get worse before they get better. Why is that?

It will get better. I mean, Davina, in a few weeks time, the air pollution will improve. You're right about the agricultural stubble burning and that's a particular problem at this time of year. So this peak in air pollution will pass and it will give some relief to the people in Delhi and all across North India and Pakistan. But

But we're not going in a good direction with air pollution in India per se at the moment. The daily air pollution year in, year out seems to be worsening. It's worsening because of more coal is burnt. It's worsening because of the waste that's being burnt and the traffic, of course, that's on the streets. Air pollution, Gary, it is a global problem. How many people does it affect around the world?

Yeah, so there's World Health Organization and the US Health Effects Institute have been trying to catalog this for some time. And it's estimated that around 4.7 million people are dying early each year because of the air pollution that they breathe outside. And then we can add a couple of million on top of that for people that are clustered around fires in their homes.

It's a very serious problem. If we look at India, for instance, figures are probably somewhere in the region of about 1.7 million. And for Pakistan, there are estimates of somewhere up to about a quarter of a million people dying early. But this is really only the tip of the iceberg.

We now know that air pollution is affecting us really all the way from before we are born to the ends of our lives where we see it in death statistics.

Are the causes, Gary, of air pollution the same in every country? There are a lot of shared problems between different countries and different parts of the world, but they also occur in different cities and different regions to varying degrees, the share and their importance changes. And there are some that are quite unique to certain locations. We

We tend to frame air pollution these days by thinking about traffic, but for many parts of the world, the burning of fuel to keep warm in our homes and certainly in India, the burning of waste is a particularly serious problem.

So, for instance, I've been speaking to scientists in the UK that have gone out to Delhi to measure air pollution and they find types of pollutants that they're just not familiar with from the UK. And a lot of this stems from the burning of plastic waste. Many people are disposing of their everyday refuge by burning it and also fires at landfill sites.

So the sources aren't the same everywhere. The solutions really are quite similar. And that is to tackle the problem at source rather than trying to ask the population to stay in or workers to wear masks or something like that. So we looked at the scale of the smog and the factors that cause it. Next, how does smog impact our health and are there solutions to this growing global problem?

I'm Crassi Twig, and on the documentary we zoom in on the backstory of the Syrian militant group that led a coalition of rebels to take control of Aleppo. Once an offshoot of al-Qaeda, HDS rebranded itself in its desire to be seen as a credible governing body. To listen to this episode of The Global Jigsaw, where we look at the world through the lens of its media, search for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Just

Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your podcasts. I'm with Devina Gupta and Gary Fuller. The pollution levels being experienced in South Asia have hit a record high. Air quality is 50 times worse than what is considered safe. That's leaving people just struggling to breathe.

Gary, can you explain how air pollution affects people's health? We often think about air pollution as affecting our breathing. And Davina was talking about the way that she's had a cough spurt, the way that it's affecting her throat, for instance.

But the air pollution that we're exposed to, we're now learning, has far more systemic effects. I spoke earlier about the new research on the way that air pollution is affecting children before they're born in terms of

and in terms of children that are being born low for birth weight. We know that air pollution is affecting children as they grow up through life. Even here in the UK and studies that I've been involved in London, we're finding that air pollution is causing children to grow smaller lungs than they would have done had they not been exposed and were breathing clean air. And that will be the same in

many countries and certainly the case there in India. Later on in life we can think about things like asthma but we're starting to learn about more effects towards the end of life as well. These include lung cancer in people that don't smoke and also

And also we're finding about dementia. And this is really quite serious in terms of the impact at the end of our lives. Those people that are exposed to greatest particle pollution are just simply living shorter lives because of this lifelong challenge from air pollution that they're experiencing.

I just wanted to also bring in the economic cost of air pollution on India's economy because it seems to be, it's coming up with its economic growth story. But there was a study which was done by Clean Air Fund in 2019 which said that every year India is losing almost $95 billion because of air pollution.

It is calculated with the productivity loss that happens at workplace. Now, $95 billion is almost 3% of the country's GDP. And when we're looking at the productivity loss at workplaces, it's billions of hours where people are either absent from work because of health reasons, because they're feeling tired. It's also because of presenteeism where they are at

work but are not able to give their 100%. And over here, if you switch on any news channel or read any newspaper or even on social media, you would come across words like toxic, absolutely death-mell for the city. And that plays on, on your mental health as well. So there is a serious economic burden this country is facing because of air pollution.

Those are serious consequences. Davina, what are authorities in India doing to protect people from the smog?

The government, at least in Delhi, it is very much a political issue. There has been a hearing in India's top court, the Supreme Court, which recently pulled the local government here, saying that why is it that clean air being such a fundamental right to residents of Delhi, why is it being denied? Why is there a delay in action? So every time the air quality dips,

there is a plan called the graded response action plan that comes into place. So when it goes to severe category, then certain measures are taken like stopping construction work, stopping entry of non-essential trucks, which are seen as another source of pollution in the city. Then schools are closed so that children can be indoors and their health can be safe. The court has said that there's been a delay in trying to assess when to implement measures

these responses. And as a result of that, Delhi has seen extremely poor air quality. There's also another way in which the government is trying to tackle this problem is by spraying water on the roads. So in the morning when I was out, I could see there were lorries doing rounds around the city and they sprinkle water. It's a mist of water.

water that comes out of them on the road. The idea is to settle this dust down. I think it's viewing the problem in the wrong way to just tackle the peaks in air pollution that you experience from time to time. We know from health studies that yes,

People do really suffer during these peaks of air pollution, but it's the air pollution that they breathe day in, day out, that causes most of the health harm. And there's a real risk here that by spraying water on the streets or by trying to seed clouds, we are kind of like busy fools. We appear to be busy tackling air pollution, but we're not actually tackling the health impacts of it.

it. I mean, there's been many studies on India's air pollution and there are certain things that could be done. So, for instance, at the moment, what you're experiencing is mainly due to stubble burning of crops. And perhaps there are alternatives to doing this. I mean, many of the people that are farming these fields are locked in a cycle of

rice and wheat, and there's little time between the harvest of one crop and the planting of the rest. So it's a real challenge for them to clear the fields. Alternatives have been suggested, such as growing rice crops that leave less

stubble or growing alternative crops such as pulses that don't lock them into this cycle. Another possible area for India to tackle is that of power generation. India has seen huge growth in its electrical power generation but this is mainly done with really

poor quality coal in power stations that are really quite uncontrolled, that have very little cleanup mechanisms. And investing in those could be a real way to improve air pollution for people in India day in, day out. And studies have identified that it's really just a small number, about 3% of power stations that are responsible for a disproportionate

amount of the health impact? Absolutely, because the government has been trying to also disincentivise farmers from burning stubble. There are also local courts who have ruled saying that it is illegal to burn stubble because it creates pollution during this time. As for the transition away from coal power, we have to understand that India is also trying to generate electricity at cheaper rates.

It is a country which is dealing with energy poverty for a lot of people. So that is where coal has been a favored way of generating electricity. That's so interesting. Gary, I want to come back to something you said a bit earlier in the podcast where you talked about your parents growing up in London and heavy smog. How have cities like London created these clean air zones and cleared up the air? Are there also gold standard countries or cities that have turned the problem around? Right.

There are examples throughout the world of cities that have clinged their acts up. Really, for the scale of problem that's facing India, perhaps the best example is China. Around the time of the Beijing Olympics, the world's attention turned to the city. It's the one thing athletes don't want to do.

And in Beijing, they could do that quite literally. The Chinese government spent $18 billion to try to clear Beijing's air, but the pollution index hovered above 90 on opening day. And those images of the iconic buildings

Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium shrouded in smog are something that really visually brought home the problems that the country was experiencing at that time. But China really has got the message, it would seem, on air pollution. If we look into

Beijing, for example, they've cut their particle pollution and it's thought that the overall health burden from air pollution in China is dropping from about two and a half million early deaths per year to be well under around one and three quarter million. And this is really massive progress.

When it comes to the solutions in London, a lot of people look contemporaneously to the measures that have been done on traffic. And they've been immensely successful, certainly in the centre of London, in terms of taking the most polluting vehicles off the road. But the solutions that work in London, with its mix of diesel traffic, diesel buses and taxis,

are not necessarily the priorities for every other city around the world. And Davina, is there a sense in India that countries can work together to improve the problem? Obviously, air pollution travels beyond India.

First of all, there's a sense of frustration here, Sumi, because there's such multiple stakeholders, even within the country, that are not getting along. So there are strict rules and guidelines for minimizing these kind of pollutants in the air during this time. I think beyond countries where there is always this demand of a global atmosphere,

action task force that could look into countries like India and Pakistan that require that kind of investment in their public transport infrastructure so that it's smoother, it's better, it helps people to reach from one place to the other hassle-free, so much so that they don't take their cars to work. If there could be investment in creating better roads where people could cycle, for example, if they want to go to work, it's still not possible for many. And

It is not as if it cannot be solved. It just requires more coordination and a better awareness and even personal responsibility, I would say, at our level, those who are privileged, to ensure that this city could be left in a better way for our next generation. Gary, what is your sense? Do you think countries in the region could work together to improve the air pollution across the region?

I think countries in the region definitely need to work together. National boundaries are lines on maps and air just doesn't really respect this at all. We have seen from the history of air pollution in Europe the way that pollutants that are emitted in one country cause tremendous harm in others.

another. So through the 1980s and 1990s to some extent, Europe was incredibly focused on so-called acid rain, which was killing many of the forests and lakes across Scandinavia.

Acid rain looks, feels, and smells like any other rain. But the water in acid rain carries poisons like sulfuric acid. That acid and its effects have been blamed for killing fish and plant life in hundreds of lakes. Scientists say the acid rain starts with factory smokestacks and exhaust from cars and trucks.

And this wasn't happening from air pollution within Scandinavia. It was coming from the very industrialized areas such as the north of the UK, such as the rural area in Germany. And recognition of this problem actually allowed countries to work together so that they all began to cut their emissions and to understand the air flows in the area. And that undoubtedly is something that would

really help the region around India. You know, the same way we have a watershed that defines where river catchments take water to the sea, we also have air sheds as well. And the problems you're experiencing at the moment in Delhi are also shared nearby in Pakistan. And the air pollution that's produced in that area also spreads to the neighboring countries. Gary, Devina, really interesting discussion with both of you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

If you want to get in touch, you can email us at theglobalstoryatbbc.com or you can send us a message or voice note on WhatsApp. Our number is plus 44-330-123-9480. And you can find all of those details in our show notes. Wherever you're listening in the world, this has been The Global Story. Thank you for having us in your headphones. Goodbye.

I'm Crassi Twig, and on the documentary we zoom in on the backstory of the Syrian militant group that led a coalition of rebels to take control of Aleppo. Once an offshoot of al-Qaeda, HDS rebranded itself in its desire to be seen as a credible governing body. To listen to this episode of The Global Jigsaw, where we look at the world through the lens of its media, search for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.