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Delhi Chokes on Winter Smog by Ranjit Devraj

Winter in the Indian capital is a season of mists, minus the mellow fruitfulness. The air becomes charged with toxic emissions and particles that cannot disperse due to a meteorological phenomenon called "atmospheric inversion".

According to B.P. Yadav, scientist with the meteorological department, atmospheric inversion is caused by a warming of the upper layers of the atmosphere, trapping colder air on the surface and, with it, vehicular and industrial emissions.

"The immediate result of the phenomenon is severely reduced visibility that throws flight schedules out of gear, as also the movement of trains and road vehicles," Yadav said. "The phenomenon should not be mistaken for plain fog which forms with plain moisture and high humidity."

Atmospheric inversion also causes severe health problems. "There is a marked rise in respiratory ailments in the winter months due to smog and it can also aggravate heart problems," says K.K. Aggarwal, a leading cardiologist in this city of 15 million people.

"Delhi’s air in winter is a toxic cocktail but the worst ingredient, from the point of view of health, is respirable suspended particulate matter which can enter the bloodstream through the lungs after inhalation, in much the same way as cigarette smoke," Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal, a noted champion of public health issues, said people have forgotten the killer "London Fog" which claimed some 5,000 lives in 1952.

"Many industrial countries had since that tragedy adopted ambient air quality standards to protect the public from such pollutants as sulphur and nitrogen oxides, suspended particulate matter and carbon monoxide released by burning fossil fuels. India, sadly, does not enforce these norms," Aggarwal said.

Studies conducted last year by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, showed that pollutants from the transport and industry sectors react with moisture under low temperature conditions to produce the thick fog that shrouds the city between November and January.

"The problem is worsening each year and threatens to overtake gains from a Supreme Court order ten years ago which ordered all diesel-run buses and taxis off the streets of Delhi and replaced them with fleets running on compressed natural gas (CNG)," says Anumita Roy Choudhury, a director at the Centre for Science and Environment, a leading non-government organisation.

"Second-generation reforms will need to seriously scale up public transport and reduce traffic volumes," Choudhury said.

Citing official disease statistics, Choudhury said acute respiratory diseases reported in the city went up by 28 percent between 2005 and 2008. "The government will need to take really strong measures to address air pollution."

‘Role of Meteorology on Urban Air Pollution Dispersion’, a scientific analysis for a 20-year period up to 2008 found that concentrations of pollutants were 40 - 80 percent higher during the winter months when compared to the annual average for the period.

Sarath Guttikunda who led the study said that while interventions like changing the entire bus fleet and introduction of a metro rail system were helpful, more industries needed to be shut down or relocated to meet acceptable clean air standards.

However, such drastic steps may be hard to carry out given the various industrial lobbies at play. For example, diesel engine manufacturers have not given up trying to re-enter Delhi’s vast automobile market by discrediting CNG.

A study released last month by the Central Pollution Control Board entitled ‘Study of the Exhaust Gases from different fuel based vehicles for Carbonyls and Methane Emissions’ describes CNG as the "worst" fuel and openly supports the use of diesel.

"The design, scope and conclusion of the study have raised many doubts about the objective of the study," said Choudhury. "The study has become a pawn in the hands of diesel business that is out to use it to discredit CNG. No study in the world has ever said that CNG is dirtier than diesel."

As for relocating industries, the Delhi state government has embarked upon a controversial programme of building "waste-to-energy" plants, through private public partnerships, on the plea that they will produce electricity from rubbish-derived fuels.

CPCB member secretary B. Sen Gupta said the plants were, in fact, being set up in violation of Supreme Court orders that require all such incinerators to be located far away from residential areas.

"What we need is scientific management of waste, starting with proper collection and segregation, rather than indiscriminate incineration," Sen Gupta said. "Incineration plants have been a failure in India and plant owners get funds and subsides form the government which are misused."

"These so-called waste-to-energy plants use discredited technology that will only contribute to the load of RSPM and other toxic emissions in Delhi’s air," said Gopal Krishna, convenor of Toxic Watch, a major NGO. "Anyone can see that these plants can only worsen Delhi’s dangerous winter smog."