Over December 2021, Delhi’s daily level of PM2.5 was averaged at around 205 micrograms per cubic meter, one of the worsts in the world and equivalent to smoking around 9-10 cigarettes per day. No one is a true non smoker in this city and no one is devoid of smoking history, thanks to our AQI. According to the World Bank, pollution of land, air, and water can be linked to more than 9 million premature deaths several times more than lethal – diseases including AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Health costs associated with air pollution alone are estimated to amount to $5.7 trillion, close to 5% of the world’s GDP. According to a report published by Health Effects Institute (HEI), particulate matter (PM)pollution was considered the third most important cause of death in 2017 and the rate is staggeringly the highest in India.
A study found out that 77% which is over 3 out of 4 people have microplastics in their bloodstream. Imagine chewing the single use plastic juice bottle seated just next to you at your desk. And we don’t even know where the plastic is going. If it’s crossing the blood-brain barrier and reaching your brain or if it’s blocking the kidney tubules or going into your bloodstream and sitting in your arteries.
According to the global plastic menace, the pandemic has added more than eight million tons of plastic to the ecosystem of which more than 25k tons have entered our oceans, which will now disintegrate and enter our food chain through water and seafood as a never-ending vicious cycle.
