^{(Photo Source : IANS)}

• Around 35% of residents in Delhi-NCR say they have given up on central and state governments’ ability to act against pollution and want to move out of Delhi NCR, said a recent survey by citizens forum LocalCircles
  
• More than half of the respondents reported they were facing a pollution issue while 13% said they had seen no impact on their health.
  
• Around 57% of the respondents said they do not use masks or air purifiers to fight pollution.

Pollution levels in Delhi and the National Capital Region have become so bad that 35% of residents of India’s capital say they want to leave the city permanently, said a survey conducted by a social media based organisation, LocalCircles.

Another 12% of residents say they will continue living but want to get away temporarily when pollution levels are higher.

A staggering 57% of respondents said they have faced health issues because of pollution but haven’t seen a doctor yet, while 30% of respondents said they or a family member had seen a doctor or visited a hospital in the last three weeks because of air pollution. Only 13% said they had seen no impact of pollution on their family , said India Times the report.

Several medical experts have warned residents in the region about the health risks of worsening air quality in the region, particularly the harmful effects of PM2.5 and PM10 particles that can cause damage in the lungs when inhaled. Over 100,000 children below the age of five have succumbed to health issues said a WHO report.

Stop-gap measures

More than half of the respondents seemed unprepared to cope with the pollution with air purifiers and masks with 56% of those polled saying they had neither.

While air purifiers and air masks have flooded the market, many high quality ones that protect against the dangerous PM 2.5 particles remain expensive and out of reach for many. Air purifiers can range from ₹ 8,000 to ₹40,000.

Unsurprisingly, only 8% of respondents said they had an air purifier. And only around 15% said they had face masks. And another 21% said they had both an air purifier and a mask.

The survey polled over 12,000 citizens living in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.

Delhi’s air quality improved from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor ’ category on Wednesday. According to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, the air quality is likely to improve in the coming two days, reported Economic Times.

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