Smog-filled Sunday: AQI worse than Delhi’s

According to SAFAR’s AQI monitoring chart, a 0-50 AQI is ‘good’, 51-100 is ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 is ‘moderate’, 201-300 is ‘poor’, 301-400 is ‘very poor’ and more than 400 is labelled as ‘severe’.

Mumbai saw its AQI levels dip from ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ category for most of last December, which has been continuing even in January. This is for the first time that the city has been witnessing such a prolonged period of ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ AQI since SAFAR began tracking the AQI almost six years back.

Weather and climate experts attribute it to several reasons like changing weather, dust released from construction sites or pollutants emitted by vehicles, among others.

Bhagwan Kesbhat, founder of Waatavaran, an NGO working for environment, said, “So many constructions are going on in Mumbai but no one is following environment safety rules like covering the under-construction buildings with a cloth so that the dust don’t get released directly into the air. Also, the government isn’t taking any action against such violations.”

Doctors and health experts have advised people who hail from vulnerable groups to use masks while stepping out of their houses. Experts have also advised installation of air purifiers as a safety measure in pockets which are showing worse AQI.

“Long exposure to air pollutants like PM2.5 can trigger the already existing mutation in the normal cell to become cancerous. Along with that, it also contributes to the rise in cases like asthma and respiratory infections,” said Dr Sarthak Rastogi, Consultant Pulmonologist at SL Raheja Hospital.