Delhi’s toxic smog intensified dramatically on Wednesday morning, with multiple monitoring stations registering “severe plus” AQI readings that crossed dangerous thresholds, including an alarming 578 at Wazirpur, 553 at Knowledge Park-5 in Greater Noida, and values consistently above 430 across Jahangirpuri, Chandni Chowk, Ashok Vihar, DTU, and Vivek Vihar, turning the entire national capital region into a virtual gas chamber under a thick, persistent blanket of hazardous particulate matter.
Dr Anant Mohan, Professor and Head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, issued a grave declaration during a high-level seminar on combating air pollution, stating unequivocally that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of the highest order that demands immediate and extraordinary intervention from all responsible agencies.
The senior pulmonologist revealed that the toxic air is no longer causing only respiratory distress but has begun inflicting severe damage on multiple organ systems, with hospitals witnessing a sharp and sustained rise in critical patients requiring emergency care and mechanical ventilation, a trend that has repeated every winter for the past decade without any substantial improvement in ground reality.
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Dr Mohan delivered a sobering reality check to millions of residents who have invested heavily in N95 masks and indoor air purifiers, explaining that these measures offer only marginal and temporary individual-level protection when pollution particles are so fine and pervasive that they penetrate deep into the bloodstream, rendering conventional defences largely ineffective against prolonged exposure at such extreme levels.
He urged authorities to abandon incremental and seasonal approaches and instead implement drastic, structural, and long-term solutions across the entire northern India region, warning that without bold and sustained action the capital’s air pollution crisis will continue to exact an ever-rising toll on public health, productivity, and life expectancy for generations to come.
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