- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Mixed day for global stocks as market hopes for 'Santa Claus rally'
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
RBGPF | -1.17% | 59.8 | $ | |
BCC | 0.91% | 123.36 | $ | |
SCS | 0.55% | 11.715 | $ | |
BTI | -0.01% | 36.215 | $ | |
NGG | -0.27% | 58.86 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.68% | 23.74 | $ | |
GSK | -0.09% | 34.03 | $ | |
JRI | 0.41% | 12.15 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 59.165 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.51% | 23.43 | $ | |
AZN | -0.5% | 66.3 | $ | |
BCE | 0.34% | 22.919 | $ | |
RELX | 0.53% | 45.835 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0% | 7.25 | $ | |
VOD | 0.71% | 8.43 | $ | |
BP | 0.18% | 28.801 | $ |
India's capital shuts schools as smog exceeds 60 times WHO limit
India's capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes Monday until further notice as worsening toxic smog surged past 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum.
Various piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- peaked at 907 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday morning, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO.
Individual monitoring stations noted even higher levels -- one recorded PM2.5 pollutants at 980, 65 times the WHO maximum.
"My eyes have been burning for the last few days", said rickshaw puller Subodh Kumar, 30.
"Pollution or no pollution, I have to be on the road, where else will I go?" he said, pausing from eating breakfast at a roadside stall.
"We don't have an option to stay indoors... our livelihood, food, and life -- everything is in the open."
Dense grey and acrid smog smothered the city, with IQAir listing conditions as "hazardous".
The city is blanketed in poisonous smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring regions to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.
A report by The New York Times this month, based on samples collected over five years, revealed dangerous fumes also spewing from a power plant incinerating the city's landfill garbage mountains.
- 'Stay indoors' -
Primary schools were ordered to cease in-person classes on Thursday, with a raft of further restrictions imposed on Monday, including limiting diesel-powered trucks and construction.
The curbs were put in place by city authorities "in an effort to prevent further deterioration" of the air quality.
Authorities hope by keeping children at home, traffic will be reduced.
"Physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12," Chief Minister Atishi, who uses one name, said in a statement late Sunday.
The government urged children and the elderly, as well as those with lung or heart issues "to stay indoors as much as possible".
Many in the city cannot afford air filters, nor do they have homes they can effectively seal from the misery of dangerous foul-smelling air.
"The rich ministers and officials can afford to stay indoors, not ordinary people like us," said rickshaw taxi driver Rinku Kumar, 45.
"Who can even afford an air purifier when paying monthly bills is a challenge?"
The smog has delayed dozens of flights in the past week.
New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.
Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.
India's Supreme Court last month ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.
It is meeting again on Monday to discuss the lack of progress on the health crisis.
Critics say arguments between rival politicians heading neighbouring states -- as well as between central and state-level authorities -- have compounded the problem.
Politicians are accused of not wanting to anger key figures in their constituencies, particularly powerful farming groups.
L.Dubois--BTB