Toxic smog closes schools in Indian capital New Delhi
The Indian government has ordered all schools to close as thick smog hit northern parts of India and Pakistan.
According to measurements by the US embassy, the levels of PM 2.5 poisonous particles reached 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter in the Indian capital, New Delhi, on Wednesday.
The figure is 40 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit of 25 over a 24-hour period, and 100 times its upper limit for long-term exposure.
Schools in New Delhi are to remain closed until Sunday. The toxic smog could threaten the health of an estimated five million students.
Arvind Kumar, the chairman of the Center for Chest Surgery at the Sri Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, described the city as "unfit for human habitation."
"The kind of toxin levels out there, you are affecting your brain, your heart, your lungs, every part of your body and it is causing irreparable damage."
Pollution regularly soars in the region before the onset of winter as farmers continue to set fire to their fields to burn the post-harvest crop stubble despite an official ban.
Last month, the medical journal Lancet reported that as many as 2.5 million people died in India in 2015 due to pollution.
The choking smog also descended on Pakistan. Flights were canceled, school times pushed back and hospitals overwhelmed with patients in the country’s second largest city Lahore.
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