Smog unabated, doctors urge long-term remedy

New Delhi: Air pollution over Delhi remained "severe" today while citizens' violations of some of the emergency measures announced on Sunday suggested the authorities lacked the mechanisms to enforce compliance.

The persistently poor air quality prompted some doctors to warn that the administration needed to plan for "long-term objectives" instead of responding with short-term emergency measures.

Government agencies measured the average concentrations of tiny particles less than 2.5 micrometres, or PM2.5 - a key indicator of the air's toxicity - at 622 micrograms per cubic metre, more than 10 times the safe limit of 60.

The absence of wind near the ground has trapped emissions in the air over the capital for the past six days, pushing up PM2.5 levels to dangerous levels between 400 and 700 which, doctors say, can exacerbate or trigger health problems.

A massive fire that broke out in a large cluster of slums in northern Delhi this evening threatened to inject more soot into the air. A Delhi fire official told this newspaper tonight that 35 fire trucks were trying to douse the flames, first reported at 6.44pm.

The Delhi government had on Sunday ordered a temporary shutdown of all schools, all diesel gensets except those used in hospitals or for mobile towers, and all construction activity in the city.

But construction was observed this afternoon next to a central government office building less than 1km from Parliament. A housing complex in east Delhi used its diesel genset for backup electricity, highlighting what activists and officials say are poor enforcement capacities.

Doctors demanded the authorities go deeper into the issue. "We see such short-term reactions every time - and only when there is a severe problem," said Ashwini Goyal, secretary of the Delhi Medical Association, a body of private doctors.

"We want government officials and city planners to make plans for long-term objectives - speeding up new emissions norms, banning old vehicles, improving public transport, things that may take three to five years to do."

Delhi Medical Association officials said their members had documented spikes in the proportion of patients reporting symptoms likely to have been exacerbated by the severe air pollution.

"Young children, the elderly, and those with any underlying illness such as asthma are most vulnerable to exacerbation of symptoms," Goyal said.

Medical studies abroad too have linked air pollution to high blood pressure and heart attacks, but doctors say India lacks the appropriate surveillance mechanisms to reliably track the health impacts of severe air pollution.

"A reliable surveillance system is critical for an early response," said Vivekananda Jha, executive director of The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi.

The government's health and disease surveillance systems are not adequately connected in real-time with the private sector healthcare.

"We already know that air pollution is the second biggest cause of premature deaths and disabilities in the country," Jha said.

Scientists have estimated that air pollution causes about 1.6 million deaths in India each year.