Haze brings down city's air quality

Delhi's weather conditions marked by a sudden chill in the air coupled with very light winds have made the city's air quality, which has already entered the 'poor' category', vulnerable to further deterioration.
The average (24-hour rolling) quantity of micro pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 were recorded by monitoring agency SAFAR at 110 and 232 micrograms per cubic metre respectively, as against the corresponding safe limits of 60 and 100.
A private forecast agency said the pollution situation in the city and NCR region will remain crucial till the first week of November and the Diwali celebrations will further aggravate it.

The national capital has seen a drop in minimum temperature of about seven degrees drop in a span of just five days, Skymet said. Although, the maximum has not fallen so rapidly.
"Such lower temperatures during morning hours and very light winds are leading to the formation of slight haze. In absence of strong winds the dust particles are mixing with the haze, forming a blanket of smog near the surface levels. This could lead to breathing problems and other ailments," the skymet report said.
Monitoring stations of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) put air quality of areas like RK Puram, Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar, Shadipur between 'severe' to 'poor' category.

'Very poor' air quality may give rise to respiratory illness while poor may cause breathing discomfort on prolonged exposure. When it plunges to 'severe', it affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases, CPCB says.