The World Health Organization estimates that a shockingly large portion of the world is breathing air that exceeds its safe air quality guidelines. Most severe is the air quality in countries like India, which is 10 times over the healthy air quality guideline, IQAir revealed.
One citizen showcased the severity of India's air quality in a video posted to the subreddit r/NaviMumbai.
The video pans around the hills of Navi Mumbai, which are coated in a thick smog.
"Those factories releasing chemicals directly in air [are] causing bad odour, pollution, [and] depletes oxygen," the OP wrote along with the video.
One of the companies was confirmed to be a technology company, while the other one referred to was a chemicals company. In the comments, the OP specified that the technology company constantly has exhaust coming from the factory, while the chemicals company has smelly smoke.
Factories significantly contribute to air contamination. This contamination includes releasing pollutants like particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, heat-trapping gases, sulfur dioxide, and ammonia, among other chemicals responsible for respiratory illnesses. The WHO has estimated that air pollution causes around 7 million premature deaths a year globally.
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One reason for India's severe air pollution is the government's reluctance to regulate large polluters such as these companies.
"They are not unaware but, despite being aware, they deny," Dr. Arvind Kumar, a chest surgeon at New Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told the Financial Times in 2018. "The corrective measures that would be needed are unpleasant, and might make them lose votes rather than gain votes."
Beyond just the enormous health impacts, air pollution plays a key part in damaging the ecosystem. Plants and wildlife rely on healthy air to grow fully. Without this, issues with our food supply also accumulate.
There are ways to repair the air quality on an individual level by opting for low-emission travel, electric utilities, and also through supporting companies that are dedicated to lowering their planet-harming emissions.
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Yes — always 💯 Reddit users who are Indian citizens are just as concerned about the video's upsetting scenes.
"It's quite sad and scary that air pollution is taken so lightly in our country with literally no measures taken to solve it," one user wrote. "AQI above 100 is the new normal these days."
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