Pollution: Delhi-NCR Gasps For Breath; Find How Clean Or Polluted Is the Air In Your City

Pollution: Find out the Air Quality Index (AQI) of your city here.

Ghaziabad: A woman wearing a pollution mask rides a scooter, in Ghaziabad,(PTI Photo/Arun Sharma)

New Delhi: With the rise in pollution level in the national capital region, a clearly visible blanket of haze covered Delhi and nearby areas, giving a tough time to the dwellers making them prone to several respiratory diseases. The Air quality Index (AQI) in the region has breached the alarming level, with the spike in pollutants from Diwali crackers and stubble burning in adjoining Punjab and Haryana. As Delhi impatiently looks on to favourable meteorological conditions to blow away the pungent haze lingering over the city, health experts have expressed concern for about 2 crore residents. The haze over Delhi thickened on Friday morning with the national capital's pollution levels increasing overnight by around 50 points, taking the overall air quality index to 459. At around 1pm on Friday, the AQI of the Delhi was recorded at 438, which is beyond severe level. You can find out the current  AQI of your city here: Delhi’s air drops to ‘emergency' category first time since January: A Central Pollution Control Board official said the AQI entered the "severe plus" or "emergency" category late Thursday night, the first time since January this year. According to official data, the overall AQI was 582 at 12.30 am. Poor air quality affecting life-span of people in North India: Study As per a new analysis of the air quality life index (AQLI) on Thursday, the average citizen living in the Indo-Gangetic plain region can expect to lose about seven years of life expectancy. Particulate pollution is high in Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The study by Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)showed that this is because air quality fails to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) guideline for fine particulate pollution.  What is AQI: The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells how clean or polluted the air is. It takes into account five chief pollutants -- particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 micrometres (PM10), PM2.5, ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and health concerns. Know how poor air quality affects your health; watch here: