N. Raghuraman's column: Along with modernity, it is important to save the five elements

One of my uncles, who is also an asthma patient, was leaving for Delhi on Wednesday morning for two days on some personal work. Before dropping them to Mumbai airport at around 8 am, I googled what Delhi's position in the Air Quality Index (AQI) was, and it was dangerously 504. So we cancelled the trip. The same AQI page also showed an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) which said Delhi tops the list of top 10 most polluted cities in October, followed by Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Hapur, Noida, Meerut, Charkhi Dadri, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Bahadurgarh and all cities in the NCR. Metros such as Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru have somehow managed to keep their pollution below the national average in October, the report said. How much quality air is safe? An AQI between 0 and 50 means quality is good, 51 and 100 is satisfactory, and more than 450 is dangerous. Shockingly, this Sunday, Lahore topped the list of cities with the world's most hazardous air quality with an AQI of 1067. Caught in a thick layer of smog, 14 million people in Lahore were suffering from respiratory problems, where authorities imposed a "green lockdown" to reduce the impact. Schools closed for a week, 50% of employees in both government-private, sectors had to work from home. The use of smoke-emitting two-stroke engines in tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws), restaurants and open furnaces of street vendors was also banned during the lockdown and construction work was also stopped. Remember, this city is just 20 km from Amritsar and there is no limit to the air. How dangerous is air pollution for survival? Air pollution killed 2.1 million Indians in 2021 alone. Dr Sandeep Salvi, Pune-based respiratory disease specialist and president of the Indian Chest Society, was quoted as saying that air pollution not only increases the risk of asthma but also heart attacks, strokes, even high BMI in children. 90% of our energy comes from air and we breathe about 10 thousand liters of air daily. Lungs, which are made to take in clean air mixed with nitrogen, oxygen, argon and a little bit of carbon dioxide. But we are inhaling harmful elements like nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter (PM), which eventually get absorbed into the bloodstream. Over time, PM2.5 (2.5 microns in size) accumulates in multiple organs, increasing the risk of respiratory, cardiovascular diseases, neurological complications. Dr. Salvi says that for sudden heart attacks, strokes, we blame lack of diet, exercise, while air pollution is also a major reason for this. What is responsible for polluted air? Do not consider stubble burning to be responsible for this because every year these days this issue deepens. In the report, the CREA has acknowledged that the year-round pollution impact such as transport, industry, power plants and cross-border sources contributed to 60-70% of pollution, while October saw only 10% contribution from crop residue burning. It can increase as winter progresses. Remember, our ancestors always used to worship Panchmahabhuta, where fire, water, earth, sky as well as air were worshiped and thus respected the five elements. And in Chhath Puja, where we worship the Sun God, he is also one of these. The funda is that to change the situation, we as citizens of the world need to save the five elements. So promise yourself to do as much charity as possible so that this world can be more liveable for the coming generation.