WASHINGTON – Thick, smoky air out Canadian wildfires caused days of misery in New York City and throughout the Northeastern United States this week. But for much of the rest of the world, breathing dangerously polluted air is an inescapable fact of life – and death.
Almost the whole world breathes air that exceeds The air quality limits of the World Health Organization are not met, at least occasionally. The danger increases when that bad air is more persistent than that Nightmarish shroud that hit the US – mostly in developing or emerging countries. It’s where most of the 4.2 million deaths attributed to outdoor air pollution occurred in 2019, the United Nations health agency reported.
“Air pollution knows no borders and it’s high time everyone came together to fight it,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, co-founder of Warrior Moms in India, a network of mothers working to clean air and protect the climate in a country in where such air is consistently the worst in the world. “What we are seeing in the US should shock us all.”
“This is a severe air pollution episode in the United States,” said Jeremy Sarnat, professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “But it’s pretty typical of what millions and millions of people are experiencing in other parts of the world.”
Last year, nine of the 10 cities with the highest annual average levels of particulate matter were in Asia — including six in India, according to air quality firm IQAir, which compiles readings from ground-level monitoring stations around the world.
Particulate matter, sometimes referred to as PM 2.5, refers to airborne particles or droplets that are 2.5 microns or smaller. That’s much smaller than a human hair, and the particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, causing eye, nose, throat and lung irritation and even impairing heart function.
Sajjad Haider, a 31-year-old shopkeeper in Lahore, Pakistan, rides his motorcycle to work every day. He wears a mask and goggles to combat the frequent air pollution in the city of 11 million, but suffers from eye infections, respiratory problems and a congested chest that worsen as the smog rises in winter.
He relies on hot water and steam to clean his chest on his doctor’s advice, but said he couldn’t follow another doctor’s advice: don’t go out on your motorcycle if you want to stay healthy.
“Without a motorcycle, I can’t afford a car and I can’t continue my business,” said Haider.
Last year, Lahore had the highest average concentration of fine dust in the world at almost 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In comparison, the concentration in New York City peaked at 303 at times on Wednesday.
But the air in New York is usually in the healthy range. The US Environmental Protection Agency standard for exposure is no more than 35 micrograms per day and no more than 12 micrograms per day for prolonged exposure. New York’s annual average has been 10 or less for the past two years.
New Delhi, a vibrant city of more than 20 million people and home to Kandhari, usually tops the list of many Indian cities gasping for breath as haze grays the capital’s skies, obscuring buildings and monuments . It’s even worse in the fall, when burning of crop residues in neighboring states is accompanied by cooler temperatures that sometimes keep deadly smoke hanging over the city for weeks.
Vehicle emissions and firecrackers set off during the Hindu Diwali festival add to the haze, and the consequences include coughs, headaches, flight delays and highway pileups. The government is sometimes asking residents to work from home or carpool, some schools are going online, and families who can afford it are resorting to air purifiers.
Although dangerous haze paralyzed the lives of millions across the United States on Thursday, New Delhi was still the second-most polluted city in the world, according to daily data from most air quality monitoring organizations.
Kandhari, whose daughter had to give up outdoor sports due to health problems caused by the bad air, said air pollution was constant but policymakers seemed to notice only the worst moments. That has to change, she said.
“We shouldn’t compromise when it comes to access to clean air,” Kandhari said.
Many sub-Saharan African countries regularly struggle with poor air quality, mainly due to sandstorms. On Thursday, AccuWeather rated countries from Egypt in the north to Senegal thousands of miles west as hazardous air quality purple. New York and Washington, DC received the same rating this week
Senegal has suffered from unsafe air for years. It’s particularly bad in eastern Senegal, as desertification – the encroachment of the Sahara into dry areas – is bringing particles into the region, said Dr. Aliou Ba, a senior Greenpeace Africa activist based in the capital, Dakar.
The Great Green Wall, a massive tree-planting drive aimed at slowing desertification, has been underway for years. But Ba said pollution has increased as the number of cars on the roads that use substandard fuel increases.
In the US, passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 eliminated many of the nation’s smog-filled cities by setting limits on most air pollution sources. The groundbreaking regulation led to a reduction in soot, smog, mercury and other toxic chemicals.
However, many developing and emerging countries often have weak or poorly enforced environmental laws. These countries also suffer from increased air pollution for other reasons, including reliance on coal, lower emission standards for vehicles, and the burning of solid fuels for cooking and heating.
Finding clear blue skies is often difficult in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world. In an apartment building in the north of the city, between two busy ports where coal is shipped and stored, local residents tried to filter coal dust with a net. It did not work.
“My family and I often experience itching and coughing,” said Cecep Supriyadi, a 48-year-old resident. “So if a lot of dust gets into the apartment, we have to be isolated at home. Because when we’re outside the house and it feels like a sore throat, sore eyes and itchy skin.”
They have also tried to use mediation and advocacy to force companies and the government to clean the air, but with limited success.
China has improved Because Beijing was notorious for its breathtaking air pollution, which shrouded office towers in a haze, diverted flights and sent old and young to hospitals where they received ventilators. When the air was at its worst, schools that could afford it installed inflatable covers over athletic fields with airlock-style revolving doors and home air filters as ubiquitous as rice cookers.
The key to improvement was the closure or relocation of heavy industry from Beijing and the surrounding areas. The highly polluting older vehicles have been taken off the road and many have been replaced by electric vehicles. China remains the world’s largest coal producer and consumer, but almost no coal is consumed at street level. The average PM2.5 level in Beijing was 89.5 in 2013 – well above the WHO standard of 10 – and fell to 58 in 2017 and is now around 30. China had only one city – Hotan – in the top 10 World with the worst air quality.
Surrounded by mountains that trap bad air, Mexico City was one of the most polluted cities in the world until the 1990s, when the government began limiting the number of cars on the streets. Air pollution has fallen, but still the city’s 9 million residents – 22 million including the suburbs – rarely experience a day when air pollution is considered “acceptable”.
Air pollution is responsible for nearly 9,000 deaths in Mexico City each year, according to the National Institute of Public Health. It’s usually worse during the dry winter and early spring months, when farmers burn down their fields to prepare for planting.
Authorities haven’t released a year-round air quality report since 2020, but this year — which was not considered particularly bad for air pollution as the pandemic reduced traffic — Mexico City had unacceptable air quality on 262 days, or 72% of the year.
During the rainy summer months, heavy rains somewhat clean the city’s air. For this reason, on Thursday, Verónica Tobar took her two children to a small playground in the Acueducto neighborhood, near one of the busiest streets in the city.
“We don’t come if we see that the pollution is very strong,” Tobar said. Back then, “you feel it in your eyes, you cry, they itch,” she said.
Her son was diagnosed with asthma last year and fluctuating temperatures make the disease worse.
“But we have to get out, we can’t be locked in,” Tobar said as her children jumped off a slide.
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Naishadham reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Yu Bing in Beijing; Babar Dogar in Lahore; Mark Stevenson and Teresa de Miguel in Mexico City; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Sam Mednick in Dakar, Senegal; Edna Tarigan and Victoria Milko in Jakarta; and Seattle-based data journalist Camille Fassett contributed to this report.
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