AFP
“We breathe poison”: Delhi children out of breath
At only one month old, Ayansh Tiwari already wears a nebulizer mask on his little face, suffering from breathing difficulties that doctors attribute to inhaling the toxic air which, every winter, poisons the Indian capital. The alarming condition of little Ayansh forced his parents to take him to the emergency room of the Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya government hospital. Like him, all the children in this spartan emergency room were struggling to breathe. Many suffer from asthma and pneumonia. These conditions increase with peaks in atmospheric pollution fueled by agricultural burning, industrial emissions and road transport in the megacity of 30 million inhabitants. “This poisonous fog is everywhere,” laments Julie Tiwari, mother of Ayansh who is coughing. in his arms.Thursday, the level of PM 2.5, carcinogenic microparticles which penetrate the lungs and blood, rose to 390 micrograms per cubic meter of air, or 25 times the maximum daily level set by the World Organization of Health (WHO). – Respiratory diseases – “I try to keep the doors and windows closed as much as possible. But we breathe poison all the time. I feel so helpless,” the young woman told AFP. 26 year old mother, on the verge of tears. A study published in 2020 by The Lancet, a medical journal, attributed 1.67 million deaths a year earlier to air pollution in India, including nearly 17,500 in the capital. “It’s a crazy crowd in our emergency rooms at this time,” says Doctor Dhulika Dhingra, pediatric pulmonologist and director of the hospital. Children are more vulnerable to air pollution because their brain and lungs, among other things, vital organs, are not fully developed, explains the doctor. According to a study published in the journal Lung India in 2021, almost one in three schoolchildren in Delhi suffers from asthma and airway obstruction. Additionally, children’s respiratory rates are higher than adults’, which means they inhale more toxic air, Dr. Dhingra said. respiratory rate increases at the same time. Which exposes them more to the effects of pollution,” she explains. “This season is very difficult for them, they can barely breathe.” Mohammad Akhlad, an 11-month-old baby, has been suffering from pneumonia for eight days. “He was such a happy child. He has only been crying and coughing for the last few days,” worries his mother, Chandni Begum, the infant. , listless and pale, on his knees. “We cannot escape this poison in the air which makes us sick,” adds this housewife living in one of the city’s slums. Like all these parents who crowd the corridors of the hospital, where treatments and medicines are provided free of charge, she cannot pay for treatment in a private clinic or afford a single air purifier. According to Seema Kapoor, pediatrician and director of the hospital, the influx of patients has been constant since that temperatures have dropped and pollutants are stagnating closer to the ground. “Respiratory diseases represent 30 to 40% of total attendance,” she says. – Bad air and poverty – For Doctor Dhingra, the only advice to give to parents is to prevent their children’s outdoor activities as much as possible.”You realize: telling a parent not to let their child go out and play because of this toxic environment.”The government of Delhi announced the emergency closure of schools, a halt to construction sites and a ban on the movement of diesel vehicles. But stubble burning in neighboring agricultural states, contributing significantly to Delhi’s pollution, continue unabated. The Supreme Court on Tuesday deplored “the veritable murder of our youth”. For vegetable seller Imtiaz Qureshi, distraught in hospital, these are just words. “We have to live day after day in this air,” recalls this 40-year-old man, who spends his time in the streets. “If I go out, the air will kill me, if I don’t, poverty will kill me.”abh/slb/lth/lgo/jnd
2023-11-09 23:19:30
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