Winter chill brings breathing woes

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: It's been a cold start to the season, but one might have more to worry about. Experts say that the cold combined with air pollution spells bad news, especially for people who have respiratory and cardiac problems.

The reason? Once pollutants enter the atmosphere their concentration decreases as they mix with clean air.

The rate of dilution depends on atmospheric conditions like wind speed and atmospheric stability.

As the prevailing cold wave conditions intensify, the atmospheric pressure drops down and pollutants in the air do not get dispersed. As a result the pollution levels shoot up.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury from the Centre for Science and Environment says, "During summer and other seasons, the levels are usually lower and the winter shows the highest peaks. And because of that, that's the time the air is very stationary."

Levels of respirable particulates suspended in the air increase in winter, which is what we're all breathing in.

Our lungs can't really deal with all this, so you get more people suffering from bronchitis and asthma.

Dr MS Kanwar from Apollo Hospital says, "We see a lot of hospital admissions at this time of year, with chronic bronchitis patients worsening. Oxygen levels going down, and secondary infections. Lung capacity and air flow capacity is limited."

With the high degree of suspended particulates in the air that we breathe, maybe it's time to take out those oxygen masks, or just hide indoors.