Traffic drives daily pollution: Study

The analysis — based on CPCB data — points to a “toxic cocktail” of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO), pollutants closely linked to vehicles and combustion sources, that has heightened health risks this season

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Even with farm fires at a multiyear low, Delhi-NCR’s winter air remains suffocating. For most of October and November, pollution levels hovered between ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’, fuelled by a rising “toxic cocktail” of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) emitted mainly from vehicles and other local sources.

At least 22 air-quality monitoring stations in Delhi recorded carbon monoxide (CO) levels above permissible limits on more than 30 of the 59 days assessed, with Dwarka Sector 8 logging the highest number of breaches at 55 days, followed by Jahangirpuri and Delhi University's North Campus, both at 50 days, according to anew analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The analysis also highlights a troubling proliferation of pollution hotspots in the capital.

In 2018, only 13 locations were officially designated as hotspots. Now, several more locations routinely record pollution levels far higher than the city average.

Jahangirpuri emerged as Delhi’s most polluted hotspot, with an annual PM2.5 average of 119 hig/m®, or micrograms per cubic metre, followed by Bawana and Wazirpur (113 g/m), Anand Vihar (111 pg/m®), and Mundka, Rohini, and Ashok Vihar (101-103 pg/m*),