Night pollution a major contributor.
KOLKATA, 5 APRIL: There is a piece of bad news for those Kolkatans who are non-smokers and turn over in their sleep assured in the knowledge that they will never end up like the hero of a novel who shoots himself after finding he is infected with an ailment emanating from an addiction to “little white sticks with yellow tips”. The city has the highest number of lung cancer patients among the five metropolitan cities, and, apart from smoking, a major cause of their ailment is night pollution (see file photo), experts have said.

PUNE: "Pune is in trouble today as the rivers are turning into nullahs and Puneites are breathing polluted air. The pollutant particulate matter has fine particles and goes inside your body through inhalation and reaches the blood stream. Not only it can cause respiratory problems and asthma, but also heart attacks," said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi on Sunday.

MUMBAI: For a dynamic city like Mumbai, it is difficult to stop new constructions or renovations of old buildings. But it is these constructions combined with the chilly weather that are making Mumbaikars unhealthy. Certain pollution levels are more than 100% higher than the normal limits that a person should breathe on days when the temperature dips unusually low.

With temperatures dropping in the city, the level of suspended air particles has shot up. The Maharashtra pollution control board (MPCB) says the quantity of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) crossed the 200 microgram per meter cube this month. On December 7, the city recorded an RSPM level of 210 microgram per meter cube of air. The permissible level is 100 microgram per meter cube. On December 14, this plummeted to 188 microgram per meter cube. But, last week, the RSPM level stood at 145 microgram per meter cube.

Flights Not Hit, But Airport Not Equipped To Handle Foggy Days Ahead
New Delhi: A thick cover of haze brought down runway visibility at the IGI Airport down to 600m on Tuesday morning. While no flights were affected, airport officials are a worried lot since only one runway at present can cater to aircraft in CATIII condition dense fog. The Met department has predicted a colder and foggier winter as compared to 2010.

Miffed over the delay in its renovation to cut down on pollution, the Punjab Pollution Control Board on Tuesday ordered to shut down the Unit IV of Bathinda thermal plant in 40 days’ time.
The Board chairman, Kahan Singh Pannu passed the order after visiting the power plant. It was found that out of the total four units at the plant, the Unit IV was causing maximum pollution. Each unit of the plant is designed to generate 110 MW of electricity.

New Delhi: Ten years after the city’s public transport switched to CNG, air pollution has again become a major threat to public health in Delhi, say environmentalists. With 69 lakh vehicles plying on city roads, a growth of about 60 lakh in 20 years, experts say oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) are now at critically high levels.

NOx and PM are known to cause cancer and asthma. Medical experts say signs of deteriorating health are already manifest. The Delhi cancer registry maintained by AIIMS shows a 2-3% rise in lung cancer cases every year.

New Delhi: The Energy and Resources Institute has rung alarm bells for the rising ozone levels in the country.