Unsurprisingly, air pollution has made headlines in North India this winter as stubble burning continues unabated and the government seeks a last minute solution.
Firecrackers exploding during Diwali resulted in a thick white fog with zero visibility. With a pandemic among us, air pollution will cause much more damage. The Indian Medical Association has attributed the rise in Covid-19 infections to increased air pollution.
Indoor pollution
On November 10, residents woke up to heavy fog in Delhi and the National Capital Region. Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (or about one ten thousandth of an inch) is particularly hazardous to human health. These particles are small enough to travel deep into the respiratory system, which could affect lung function. To be considered safe, National Ambient Air Quality Standards require that the concentration of PM 2.5 be less than 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air in any 24-hour period.
The PM 2.5 level in Sonepat, where I live, was 797 and the monitor closest to my neighborhood in Khewra was showing PM 2.5 at 487. A colleague had posted a photo of his air purifier the night before showing PM 2.5 at 600 on the inside.
Clearly, even the air purifiers couldn’t deal with this level of pollution. However, my air purifier showed PM 2.5 at 18, well within the standards of the World Health Organization. This is due to strategies I have tried and tested for three years to keep indoor pollution low.
When I moved to Delhi NCR to join Jindal Global University in 2017, my son coughed non-stop throughout the summer to winter. I felt defeated and powerless as air pollution is a complex problem resulting from burning stubble, industrial emissions, thermal power plants, vehicular pollution, burning trash, construction, dust, and more. But a talk from Ted by environmental activist Kamal Meattle on how to produce clean air motivated me to experiment to improve indoor air quality.
Most of us spend at least 12 hours in our homes. If we can improve indoor air quality, we could substantially reduce the pollution we are exposed to every day. In addition to strategies like wearing an N95 mask outdoors, it is important to clean indoor air as toxic air will leak into our homes and when it mixes with indoor kitchen pollutants it can make indoor air so toxic like the outside air. .
Air purifiers can clean indoor air, but only when our homes are well insulated from outside air. For those living in rental homes, inexpensive bubble wrap, duct tape, and inexpensive rubber tapes can do a good job of insulation. But an air purifier can only be part of the solution, as it cleans the air but does not produce the oxygen we need.
When the smog clears up in the afternoons, we can air our rooms, but on days when the smog doesn’t clear, airing our homes at any time of the day / night can let in toxic air. Second, a purifier can only reduce pollution to a certain level. When PM 2.5 levels begin to rise near 1,000, which is now an annual occurrence, indoor PM 2.5 levels can also rise as high as 700 or 800.
Cleaning the air
Desperate to ease my son’s nagging cough, I decided to try the Meattle method. Meattle worked with the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and used NASA studies that pointed to the effectiveness of certain air-purifying plants in cleaning the air and increasing oxygen indoors. Using a combination of these plants with air purifiers, Meattle transformed his office at Paharpur Business Center into the greenest building in New Delhi. I bought my first set of plants in 2017 and found to my surprise that the PM 2.5 levels inside plummeted with the purifier able to clean more effectively.
I soon found out that all houseplants work efficiently to reduce pollution, and you don’t need to buy just the ones listed by Meattle. Little by little I began to cover our rooms with plants and, over time, I also made other spaces in my home greener. I greened every little spot close to natural light, including bathrooms and kitchen, with discarded bottles that now house water-grown vines. While we have collected many plants in our home over the years, colleagues who purchased a few small plants have seen PM 2.5 levels drop in their homes. Therefore, it is not necessary to have too many plants for this to work.
It takes some time to maintain the plants and air purifiers. Air purifier filters should be cleaned regularly and more frequently during winters to help them last longer and reduce costly replacements. Some basic gardening skills are essential to keeping plants healthy and should be sprayed weekly to allow the plant to exhale the oxygen we need.
This year, after three years of trial and error, we are far from panicking as we enjoy fresh, clean air indoors, with PM 2.5 levels within World Health Organization standards and rarely by on top of it. In addition to the fresh air, our house has been turned into a kind of garden and gives us a feeling of calm and energy. We sleep well and haven’t cough for a long time. We have found that gardening and earthwork can take away stress and keep kids busy, especially when they can’t play outside.
I am painfully aware that these solutions are restricted to a privileged few who have decent housing. But if we can take steps to breathe cleaner air and stay healthy, we can free up hospital facilities for those who sadly cannot afford these solutions.
Kaveri Haritas is Associate Professor at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, OP Jindal Global University.
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