POLLUTION

Air Pollution: 70% Respondents Face Health Impacts; 27% Plan to Leave Delhi-NCR Due to Toxic Air, Says Survey

According to a survey, nearly 70% of the respondents or their family members are already facing difficulties due to poor air quality in Delhi and surrounding areas.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in most parts of Delhi and NCR has turned "severe", with incidents of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh serving as a key driver for pollution. Other contributors include vehicular pollution, pollution due to crackers during Diwali, etc.

To understand how residents are feeling the impact of toxic air and the measures being taken, the online community platform LocalCircles conducted a survey that received over 26,000 responses from residents of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram & Faridabad. Of the respondents, 65% were men, while 35% were women.

The first question in this survey attempted to understand the impact of toxic air on people. It asked the respondents, "Who all in your family are impacted by the bad air quality in the Delhi-NCR?"

Nearly 70% of respondents have one or more family members, or they feel the impact themselves; Of 9,123 respondents to this question, 30% indicated that "elderly parents/ grandparents at home" were already impacted. In 10% of families, school-going children feel unwell; 20% are themselves affected due to their health conditions; another 10% are not well though they have no pre-existing medical conditions.

Only 30% of the respondents indicated that they and their families are facing no health issues due to poor air quality in Delhi-NCR.

To a question on plans to cope with the deteriorating air quality in the next three weeks, 9% indicated they would use anti-pollution masks; 21% would use air purifiers at home, while 14% plan to increase consumption of immunity-boosting foods.

The survey data shows that 42% of respondents plan to increase their consumption of immunity-boosting foods; 37% rely on anti-pollution masks to safeguard their health; while 35% are banking on air purifiers at home to keep out ill effects of air pollution.

At the end of the day, these safety measures can only provide limited protection to the over 32 million population of Delhi-NCR.

Many families who have senior citizens or young children try to get away from Delhi-NCR to escape the toxic air. As many as 27% of the respondents indicated that they plan to get away from Delhi-NCR.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

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