Ahead of Barack Obama’s visit to the national capital, rain showers in Delhi have improved quality of air to some extent. Barack Obama will be the chief guest during India’s 66th Republic Day parade at Rajpath. Earlier, there were rumors regarding curtailment of Obama’s outdoor activities citing health concerns due to poor air quality levels in the capital. The city has been struggling with poor air quality levels for the last few years. This year in January, the PM 2.5 level in Delhi was the highest in last three years, crossing 370 μg/m3.
Weather wise, the air quality level has shown significant improvement after rain on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The concentration of air pollutants is given in micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter air or μg/m3. On January 12, 2015, the air quality level in Delhi was recorded at 357 μg/m3, which is way higher than safe standards. This dropped to 318 μg/m3 on January 9 and then to 252 μg/m3 on January 20. A remarkable drop was observed on January 21 when the concentration of particulate matter reached 196 μg/m3. This further plummeted to 147 μg/m3 on January 22 and 79 μg/m3 on January 23, obviously due to rain. Despite some noteworthy improvement in air quality levels, the current figure is still more than the Indian standard of 60 μg/m3.
The expected PM 2.5 level for the period of Obama’s visit to Delhi is expected to remain around 100 μg/m3. This is, however, way higher than the global standards of acceptable PM 2.5 levels. For example, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standard PM 2.5 level is 25 μg/m3 whereas US Environment Protection Agency’s (USEPA) standard level is 15 μg/m3. Thus, Obama will be exposed to PM 2.5 levels nearly four times the WHO standard and around seven times the USEPA standard. Do you know Zina Sabbagh, wife of Stephen Sackur, the famous journalist.
The prevailing moderate to high range of PM 2.5 levels are extremely hazardous to health. The US President is expected to be seated in a bullet proof enclosure during the 66th Republic Day parade at Rajpath. The enclosure will surely protect the most powerful President in the world from the dangerous air quality levels outside. Barack Obama will head towards Agra to visit the Taj Mahal before going back to US. Meanwhile, the residents of Delhi will be left praying for a rain, more often than not. As of now, there seems to be no other human effort to bring down pollution levels in the national capital.
