Stephanie March talks from Delhi, says city's pollution is shaving months off life
Delhi has become the most polluted city in the world, with the air in the Indian capital so toxic a professor estimates for every year spent in the city, one month will be shaved off someone's life expectancy.
ABC South Asia correspondent Stephanie March has lived in Delhi for two years and was shocked to learn the price of her stay on her health.
"Most expats will tell you that when you live in a foreign country, it's good to have a few things that you enjoy doing and you make time for in order to stay sane. Mine is running," March said.
"I like to run a five-kilometre loop through a biodiversity park near my house.
"It's quite nice. It's red-dirt scrubland and, if you squint hard enough, it looks a bit like central Australia, albeit with more sari-clad women chopping firewood and bright orange gurus wandering past.
"It's not perfect - it's under the flight path of Delhi's airport - but still, I usually [find it] peaceful and relaxing - that is, until recently."
In winter, Delhi's pollution levels skyrocket and now a morning run leaves March with a sore throat and pain in her lungs.
"You don't just feel the pollution - you see it," she said.
"When I flew in from Australia a few months ago, I thought I was looking out the plane window at the clouds as we came into land.
"I got a shock when the plane suddenly hit the runway and I realized what I thought was a cloud was smog. You couldn't even see the gate from the window once the plane was parked.
"When I first arrived in Delhi, locals would politely call this 'fog'. It's not - it's smog."
Delhi's air 45pc more polluted than Beijing's
March said the smog used to be something most Delhiites just seemed to put up with, but things changed when data released this year revealed the city's air was 45 per cent more polluted than Beijing's, making it the most polluted city on Earth.
"Delhi's pollution is more dangerous than that of the Chinese capital because, in layman's terms, there are more small toxic particles in Delhi's air and they are more dangerous because they go deeper into your lungs," she said.
It is not uncommon in Delhi for the levels of these small particles to be 15 times higher than what the World Health Organisation considers safe.
The main contributors to this pollution are heavy vehicles on the city's roads, low emission and fuel standards and indoor pollution from people who burn kerosene and cow dung for cooking and lighting in poorer communities.
When United States president Barack Obama visited Delhi recently, a statistician calculated how much damage the city's pollution was doing.
University of Cambridge Professor David Spiegelhalter worked out that during Mr Obama's three-day stay in Delhi, he lost, on average, six hours of his life due to his exposure to the city's toxic air.
Pollution levels do vary throughout the year and are worse in winter, which was when Mr Obama was visiting.
One year in Delhi shaves one month off life
As a Delhi resident, March said the idea that breathing could ultimately kill you was alarming.
"I emailed Professor Spiegelhalter and asked him if he had extrapolated the figures to work out how much time one would shave off their life after spending a year in Delhi," she said.
"He wrote back saying, on average, for every year in Delhi you lose one month of your life.
"I've been here for two years and, despite theoretically having lost two months of my life already, I hope to stay longer.
"But I do wonder if it is worth it."
March said she was aware she could one day leave Delhi, whereas most of her neighbours never would.
"In fact, I can return to the clean air of Australia any day I like. But most of my fellow Delhiites don't have that choice. They are stuck here," she said.
"And with 1,500 cars being added to Delhi's roads each day and more coal-fired power stations being built around the country, it doesn't look like things will get better for them any time soon."
