Ever since 2017, the issue of smog has gained traction, as it envelops cities like Delhi and Lahore when winter starts to settle in. As of 2019, the smog has developed into a full-blown crisis, reaching hazardous levels that seriously impact the air quality, making it harmful to the residents of these cities. Read about Climate change.
The poor air quality bubbles forth ire from citizens on Twitter demanding that the government deal with the crisis right away. In some cases, the demand to shut down schools and cities is placed. Jasminder, an Indian citizen, tweeted, “Please shutdown Delhi for [the] next few days till AQI is below 300 Moderate category. It’s above 400 for the last few weeks now, which is a HEALTH EMERGENCY!!” Some compare the plight of the city to real life Chernobyl; Nabeel Haider from Pakistan wrote, “Lahore’s air quality has gone way above the hazardous level (i.e. 300 to 500). We are living in Chernobyl right now. #LahoreSmog.”
The situation is worsened by the lack of awareness surrounding the issue of smog, which is mistaken for fog. Here’s a breakdown of what smog actually is.
Tracing the Origin
The composition of smog varies from place to place. The word smog is a combination of the words smoke and fog. The term was coined in 1905 by Dr. Henry Antoine des Voeux. He first introduced it in a paper titled ‘Fog and Smoke’ which was presented to the Public Health Congress.
However, there is a difference between the smog of the 1900s and the smog of 2019. Previously, smog was a combination of sulfur dioxide and smoke that was the result of burning coal to heat and run homes, businesses and factories. This is also known as London smog, and it is worsened by dampness and a high density of suspended particulate matter in the atmosphere.
Today, the smog is far more complex. It is a mixture of numerous air pollutants like nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbon vapors, and other chemical compounds. Also known as Los Angeles smog, this combination of air pollutants interacts with sunlight forming an ozone of sorts at the ground level, engulfing heavily industrialized cities.
The making of smog
Smog is made by a set of complex photochemical reactions between vaporized organic compounds, sunlight and nitrogen oxides that form a ground-level ozone. These pollutants are sourced from automobile exhausts, factories, power plants and products that are consumed on a mass scale like paint, hairspray, plastic popcorn packaging and chemical solvents.
Smog is thus characteristic of heavily urbanized and industrialized areas. In urban areas, smog precursors are sourced from boats, cars and buses. These precursors interact with other elements such as traffic, high temperatures, sunshine and geography. The location and density of fog are underscored by weather and geography. This is because temperature determines how long it will take for smog to form.
Smog can also stay trapped in one place for a long duration due to temperature inversion (warm air does not rise, instead it stays at ground level). When this happens, the smog often worsens as elements like traffic and other consumer products add to it.
Where smog is found
Heavy smog and ground level ozone problems are found all over the world since industrialization and urbanization is a trademark of the modern world. These issues are particularly dense in areas where the factories have been outsourced and population density is high. To place it on the map, these areas include Asia, Middle East and the Americas. The areas where the most smog can be found is New Delhi, Lahore, Cairo, Dhaka, Beijing, Riyadh, Mexico City, Moscow and Mongolia.
The dangers of smog
Breathing in smog is particularly damaging for your health. The composition of smog also includes a pollutant called ozone, and breathing in too much ozone has a detrimental impact on your lungs.
The exposure to smog can lead to different types of health-related problems that can be short and long term. They vary according to the ozone content.
- One of the most common issues us coughing and throat/chest irritation. Dense ozone levels can irritate the respiratory system, with discomfort lasting for a couple of hours after the exposure.
- If you suffer from asthma, smog can irritate your lungs and trigger an asthma attack if the ozone levels are too high.
- It can cause difficulty in breathing in general. Inhaling deeply is made difficult, particularly due to the high ozone content.
- Smog can worsen other conditions like emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
- It can lead to eye irritation, cause lung infections and reduce your resistance to cold.
Smog places different categories of people at risk differently. People who are manual laborers or enjoy strenuous outdoor activity are prone to the negative effects of smog. Physical activity requires deeper and quicker breaths, which exposes the lungs of these people to the pollutants in smog.
Children, the elderly, adults that are active outdoors, people with susceptibility to ozone and people with respiratory diseases face the most risk when exposed to smog.
The poor air quality has had a detrimental impact on the health of citizens. Yaseen Ali, a citizen of Pakistan wrote on Twitter, “I moved back to Pakistan 2 years ago and I was perfectly fine. Thanks to the pollution here I developed Stage 3 lung cancer, despite not being a smoker. I’ve had half my right lung removed and now I’m heading into 6 months of chemo. This air is literally killing us!”
Measuring air quality
Air quality is measured using AQI which is an index that reports the air quality. The index indicates how clean or polluted the air is, and corresponds with the level of health concern required. It emphasizes the health effects that may be experienced after exposure to smog.
Air Now sums up the working mechanism of the AQI as follows: “Think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern.”
The following is the categorization of AQI:
- 0-50 – Air quality is good.
- 51-100 – Air quality is moderate.
- 101-150 – Air quality is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
- 151-200 – Air quality is unhealthy.
- 201-300 – Air quality is very unhealthy.
- 301-500 – Air quality is hazardous.
Values above 500 are beyond the AQI.
The situation in Lahore
As November settled in, the blanket of smog has grown denser in Lahore. It varies in different parts of the day, with the worst AQI prevailing during the daylight hours.
Recent calculations from the Met Department indicated that the air quality index was 257. However, Air Visual published different readings, 416 AQI at the US Consulate, 383 in Gulberg, 491 at Punjab Assembly, 389 at Bedian Road, 264 at Upper Mall, 347 in Allama Iqbal Town’s Zeenat Block, 206 DHA Phase 5, 200 at Beaconhouse Canal Side boys campus and 283 at the Sundar Industrial Estate.
“You can see and smell the smoke all day; you can actually touch the filth. Half the time, I’m scared to breathe in.” says Aisha Manan, a manager in an international company.
Outdoor activities in schools have been banned by the government. Kids are required to stay inside during recess. Officers of Education authorities stated “… there will be no outdoor sports and other activities up till 20th December in all public and private schools in Punjab due to smog.”
The situation in Delhi
The AQI situation in Delhi is similar. It falls in the hazardous category and is expected to go beyond it, resulting in a state of emergency. Today, the AQI level in Delhi was 472, and at many places in NCR, the AQI surpassed 500.
According to SAFAR, “the levels of PM 2.5 – tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream – exceeded the emergency threshold of 300 micrograms per cubic meter in Delhi-NCR on Thursday morning and shot up to 322 micrograms per cubic meter, around six times the safe limit of 0-60, in the morning.”
The smog has been aggravated by farm fires and poor weather conditions, edging the Delhi-NCR area towards the emergency zone. The government issued an order to shut down all schools till 15th November, and unforeseen holidays continue to be announced in accordance with changing air quality levels.
There is hope that the situation will improve due to subsiding farm fires and more wind speed due to western disturbance.
Fighting back
In Lahore, the matter has been taken to court by a group of concerned citizens on 4th November. These include Laiba Siddiqi, Leila Alam and Misahel Hayat, who demanded a new plan of action to deal with the smog crisis, as the current plan is ‘null and void’.
Sara Hayat, an environment expert stated, “The government should stop shifting the blame for smog on India and accept that Pakistan’s transportation, poor fuel quality, industrial emissions and agriculture have placed us in a state of smog emergency.”
The buck-passing has been condemned by the public and the LHC ordered the provincial authorities to appear before court to deal with the issue.
