Hell in Delhi: “If I go out the wind will kill me, if I don’t go out the poverty will kill me”!

Just one month old, Ayansh Tiwari PortePorte He already has a nebulizer mask attached to his little face, and he is suffering from difficulty breathing, which doctors attribute to his inhalationAirAir poisonous joe, every winterwinter, poisons the Indian capital. Little Ayansh’s critical condition forced his parents to take him to the emergency room of the Chacha Nehru Children’s Hospital government hospital.

Like him, all the children in this Spartan emergency room are struggling to breathe. Many people suffer from asthma and pneumonia. These conditions increase with extremes in atmospheric pollution resulting from agricultural burning, broadcastbroadcast Industrial and road transport in a megacity of 30 million inhabitants. , it’s everywhere FogFog Poison », laments Ayansh’s mother Julie Tiwari, who coughs in her arms.

The level of Thursday, November 9, PM 2.5PM 2.5The amount of carcinogenic microparticles that enter the lungs and blood is 390 micrograms per cubic meter of air, or 25 times the maximum daily level set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Children’s respiratory system is immature

, I try to keep the doors and windowswindows Shut down as much as possible. But we breathe poison all the time. i feel so helpless », the 26-year-old young mother tells AFP tearstears, A study published in 2020 by the LancetA medical journal blamed air pollution for 1.67 million deaths in India a year ago, including about 17,500 deaths in the capital.

, There is a mad rush in our emergency rooms right now. », says Dr Dhulika Dhingra, pulmonologistpulmonologist Pediatrician and hospital director. Children are more sensitive to air pollution because their BrainBrain And their lungs, among other vital organs, are not fully developed, the doctor explains. According to a study published in the journal lungs india In 2021, almost one in every three school children in Delhi suffers from asthma and airway obstruction. Additionally, children’s respiratory rates are higher than adults’, which means they breathe in more toxic air, Dr. Dhingra adds.

Winters in India only increase air pollution. Many small children suffer from respiratory problems. © 20 Minutes France, YouTube

, They cannot remain still, they walk and run and the respiratory rate also increases. Due to which they are more affected by pollutionshe explains. it SaisonSaison It’s very difficult for them, they can hardly breathe “11 month old child Mohammad Akhlad has been suffering from pneumonia for eight days. ” He was a very happy child. He has been crying and coughing for the last few days », his mother Chandni Begum is worried, the newborn baby, lethargic and pale, on her knees. , We cannot escape this poison in the air that makes us sick », says this housewife living in a slum in the city.

Like all those parents who crowd the hospital corridors, where treatment and medicines are provided free of cost, she cannot pay for treatment at a private clinic or afford an air purifier. According to Seema Kapoor, pediatricianpediatrician And according to the hospital director, the influx of patients has been steady since temperatures dropped and pollutants settled near the ground. , Respiratory diseases represent 30 to 40% of total attendance “, she says.

When breathing becomes deadly…

For Dr Dhingra, the only advice he can give to parents is to restrict their children from outdoor activities as much as possible. , You realize: Because of this toxic environment, parents are being told not to let their kids go out and play., » Delhi government announces emergency closure of schools, closure of construction sites ConstructionConstruction And ban on the use of diesel vehicles. but the burning of ThatchThatch Neighboring agricultural states, which are contributing significantly to Delhi’s pollution, continue to grow. Supreme Court condemned on Tuesday The real murder of our youth “. But these are just words for Imtiaz Qureshi, the troubled vegetable vendor in the hospital.” We have to live in this air day after dayLet’s remember this 40-year-old man who spends his time on the streets. If I go out the wind will kill me, if I don’t go out the poverty will kill me ,