Death in the air

Improving air quality is not a priority with any political party in the poll-bound Punjab. Nor is the mad rush on roads, traffic jams, urban chaos or the quality of life. These are not issues people agitate for. Owning a personal car is more important than insisting on better public transport. It is when a government tries an odd-even formula to regulate air pollution or a court slaps curbs on vehicles that media and people react. The reaction is limited and short-lived. As Delhi fought odds for clean air, Ludhiana slept. Some have taken to cycling but the challenge is too big and awareness about it too small. 

The latest WHO report is alarming. It says nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, even outdoors, and 92 per cent of the humanity lives in places where air pollution exceeds the WHO limits, thus contributing to lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. The study, based on data available in 2012, uses an air quality model that measures the smallest particles, less than 2.5 micrometres, which tend to enter the bloodstream and reach the brain. For the first time WHO has given a country-by-country picture of the damage done. Among the worst hit is China, where more than one million people died from dirty air in 2012, and India, which saw some 6,00,000 pollution-related casualties. Air pollution does not cause only respiratory diseases and deaths caused are not usually traced to the bad quality of air at home, in office or on the road.

The WHO prescribes sustainable transport, waste management and renewable energies as possible ways to counter air pollution. To cut congestion on roads, the Bombay High Court suggests a car quota for each family. However, vehicles constitute only one aspect of air pollution. Coal-fired power plants and waste burning too are the culprits that are not targeted or taken seriously. The political leadership in Punjab rather takes pride in the coal-based private power plants. Farmers burning biomass are only gently reminded of the law that imposes a ban. The polluters in this country are let off lightly because the harm they cause is underestimated.