Eye disorders surge 50% in Delhi's corrosive air cocktail

COLD, WINDLESS AIR TRAPS TOXINS, LEADING TO A HOST OF AILMENTS

- BY STEPHEN N. R.

People jog amid a thick layer of smog that engulfs Kartavya Path as the air quality index rises to the 'severe' category, in New Delhi yesterday.

Delhi's smog crisis is tightening its grip. As the city wakes up to mornings wrapped in grey haze and the air grows heavier by the hour, doctors are warning that the toxic mix of smoke, chemicals, and dust is not just choking lungs — it's burning eyes, damaging corneas, and blurring vision.

The capital's worsening air quality, now among the world's most hazardous, has triggered a 50 to 60 per cent jump in eye-related ailments this week alone, according to ophthalmologists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and other major hospitals. The combination of post-Diwali pollution, stagnant winds, and plunging temperatures has turned Delhi's air into a corrosive cocktail that is harming nearly every organ of the human body.