Air pollution: Best air purifiers and masks that can help you breathe easy

International News
With most of India — capital New Delhi in particular — struggling to breathe because of hazardous air quality, people are forced to look at measures to prevent illness. Some of the most important things to do is getting good air purifiers and pollution filter masks. These come in different shapes and sizes, each with its own qualities and benefits. Which one should you go for? Business Standard lists five best anti-pollution gears to help you make a more informed choice:
Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier (Rs 54,900)
This tower-shaped air purifier is a successor to the Dyson Pure Cool air purifier (review). As the name suggests, it is designed to work in all weather conditions. Like its predecessor, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool does not look, work or perform in the same way as other air purifier in the market. Designed for indoor use — the living room, bedroom or large lobby areas — this air purifier has inbuilt sensors that detect pollutants, such as PM 2.5 and PM 10, and volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and formaldehyde, that are emitted from paints, burning of candles and materials in furniture, and nitrogen. It cleans the air based on the readings of its sensors. This air purifier has inbuilt Wi-Fi that makes it easy to connect with Android and iOS devices. With the help of the Dyson link app, you can fetch the air quality reading from the air purifier in real time. The app also shows the filters’ health and notifies when they need to be cleaned or replaced.
Dyson Pure Hot+Cold air purifierHoneywell Air Touch i9 (Rs 18,900)

This air purifier makes a good choice for moderate rooms of around 350 sq ft size. It has a minimalist design that makes it a good fit in contemporary living spaces. The air purifier has a three-level filteration process — a pre-filter for cleaning the air of large particulate matter, such as PM 10; a HEPA filter to bring down the PM 2.5 level and other particulate matter of up to 0.3 microns in size; and a HiSi filter that absorbs smoke and toxic gasses. The most likeable feature of this unit is its top panel. It operates with a light touch and is simple to understand. ...READ MORE

Air pollution from stubble burning costing India $30 bn annually: Study

Current Affairs

Air pollution due to crop residue burning in northern India is a leading risk factor of acute respiratory infections and causes an estimated economic loss of $30 billion annually, according to a study unveiled Monday.

Researchers from the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and partner institutes found that living in districts with air pollution from intense crop residue burning (CRB) is a leading risk factor for acute respiratory infection (ARI), especially among children less than five years.

The study that estimates -- for the first time -- the health and economic costs of CRB in northern India also found that CRB leads to an estimated economic loss of over $30 billion annually.

"Poor air quality is a recognised global public health epidemic, with levels of airborne particulate matter in Delhi spiking to 20 times the World Health Organization's safety threshold during certain days," said Samuel Scott, IFPRI Research Fellow and co-author of the study.

"Among other factors, smoke from the burning of agricultural crop residue by farmers in Haryana and Punjab especially contributes to Delhi's poor air, increasing the risk of ARI three-fold for those living in districts with intense crop burning," Scott said in a statement.

The study also estimated the economic cost of exposure to air pollution from crop residue burning at $30 billion or nearly Rs 2 trillion annually for the three north Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, researchers said.


 To be published in the upcoming edition of the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study analysed health data from more than 250,000 individuals of all ages residing in rural and urban areas in India...Read More

Patiala only Indian city with clean air as new anti-pollution plan stumbles

Current Affairs:

Almost a month after the launch of a national programme for air pollution abatement, cities across India--home to 14 of the most polluted cities in the world--continued to breathe toxic air during the winter of 2018-19.

Only Patiala among 74 cities assessed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) met the national safe air standards as on February 4, 2019, said a CPCB daily bulletin.

On January 17, 2019, Ghaziabad, an industrial city bordering capital Delhi, reported a 24-hour average for toxic particulate matter (PM) 2.5 that was 14 times higher than World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe standard. The PM 2.5 average that day in Ghaziabad was six times higher than even India’s own, more lenient, safe-air standard. The national standard allows 2.4 times higher levels of particulate matter than the WHO’s.

The air quality in the world’s most polluted city, Delhi--home to 20 million people--remained above safe limits almost all days this winter between November 2018 and the first week of January 2019, IndiaSpend reported on January 17, 2019.


To fix this pollution crisis, the Indian government launched its first-ever national framework called National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) on January 10, 2019.

What 2019 Budget can do to help India clean its air, reduce coal addiction

Interim Budget 2019:

India has one of the world’s largest programmes to expand renewables--a doubling of capacity over the next four years--but India’s ambitious 2022 target of generating enough non-coal energy to replace the equivalent of 175 coal-powered plants is veering off track.

On February 1, 2019, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a chance to get things back on track, help India reduce its addiction to coal, help clean the country’s air and meet the global climate-change commitments of the world’s fourth-fastest growing carbon polluter

After record growth in the installed capacity of renewables over the four years to 2017, capacity addition slowed down in 2018. The main reasons: an anti-dumping duty imposed by the government on imported solar modules to aid domestic manufacturing, higher rates of taxation under the goods and service tax (GST) and unclear policy.So, the last budget before 2019 general elections is of particular significance to the renewables sector, which comprises electricity from solar, wind, hydro and bio power.

These are the issues the budget must contend with:

• Due to a 2018 slowdown, the government will have to install 3.5 times more capacity every month than its average speed for the last four years.
• A new duty on imported solar modules--which meet more than 80% of the country’s need--increased production costs and threaten the competitiveness of solar tariffs against those of coal.
• Higher GST rates on solar modules and services are driving away investors and manufacturers. Delays in a long-term policy to remove uncertainty from the sector is holding back new investment.