Survival Tips For First Time Mom: How to save your children from the pollution this winter?

It's that time of the year again. The haze has started to engulf Delhi with it's powerful grip as winter approaches. I hear children coughing while playing in the park , elderly couples while taking a walk. They say you need 30 mins to an hour of physical activity daily outdoors. But what is worse subjecting ourselves to the pollution or leading sedentary lifestyles?

The air quality in Delhi , according to a WHO survey of 1600 world cities is the worst of any major city in the world and yet we are mere spectators to this catastrophe. Air pollution in India is estimated to kill about 1.5 million people every year.

The safe levels for PM according to WHO's air quality guidelines are 20 ug for PM10 and 10 ug for PM2.5. Delhi doesn't see these levels even during the monsoon time when the air quality should supposedly be most favorable. Now what is PM10 and PM2.5 ? This is particulate matter which is 10 micrometers in diameter (by a way of comparison human hair is about 100 um in size). Similarly PM 2.5 is particulate matter 10 micrometers in diameter.

PM10 is the lesser of the two evils. They are coarse dust particles which are caught up in the defensive nose hair and upper airways of our lungs. They make your eyes burn and throat dry. Our body generally removes these particles by sneezing and coughing.

PM2.5 are only detectable under the microscope. They are produced from all kinds of combustion like burning of crop, combustion due to motor vehicles, power plants, industrial fumes. Our body isn't designed to combat PM2.5. This carcinogen is man made. These particles are so small that they bypass our immune system and gets trapped into our lungs.

Children and elderly are thought to be particularly sensitive to PM2.5. People who live in cities have more incidences of heart attack , reduced lung function and increased changes of dying younger in comparison to people living in cities with cleaner air. The short term effects of this carcinogen in children is runny nose, burning eyes, cough, chest congestion, heavy head, poor cognitive ability.

I saw a video the other day where Dr Arvind Kumar, a senior oncologist at Sir Ganga Ram hospital, spoke about how lung cancer is inflicting youngsters in their twenties and how it doesn't make any difference if you are a smoker or a non smoker in order to get lung cancer? They have done studies which showed that in past (about 20-30 years ago) most lung cancers were seen in patients who were 50-60 years of age, that is because an individual who starts smoking in his or her 20's , their lung tissue becomes cancerous only after exposure to the smoke and carcinogens for about 30 years.

But this trend has changed, individuals are getting lung cancer in their 20's because right from when a baby is born the regular air that he or she is breathing is equivalent to 7 cigarettes a day and on days when are the air is bad (which is about 100 days in winter) , our babies are smoking 30-40 cigarettes a day.

Also the ratio of smokers to non -smokers getting cancer was 8:1 , but now the ratio is 1:1. It doesn't matter if you are a smoker or a non smoker to get lung cancer. It is the air that we are breathing which is toxic enough. The doctor also goes on to mention that if this isn't an emergency that what is and if we don't do something about it , our children would be requiring oxygen cylinders in the near future.

My first reaction to this video was anger that even though most of us are aware of that our city Delhi is dying a slow death and yet we seem to have come to terms to this dire situation. We seem to have become an insensitive lot, instead of nipping the problem in the bud, we are okay with our children wearing Vogmasks during winter, restricting outdoor activity when that air level become hazardous or getting air purifiers installed in our homes , classroom and cars.

But what about the underprivileged who can't afford this interim solution? Untill ofcourse some ressearch tells us that air purifiers work only in closed rooms but this spikes the level of carbon dioxide in the room which is in turn is hazardous for our children. So the doors need to be opened intermittently to ensure that the carbon dioxide level does not increase. It is a viscous circle.

The second thing I did was to tweet this video to Arvind Kejriwal and the National Green Tribunal, in the hope that someone would see it and call for immediate action. We only think of air pollution as a problem when we see a haze engulfing Delhi, our national capital, when the levels of PM2.5 reach hazardous, we forget about pollution the rest of the year. When PM2.5 is 120 , we consider that relatively good air, when actually the normal levels of PM2.5 is 10ug.

But why have we accepted this situation ?why are we letting Delhi die? Why isn't odd-even imposed the entire year round? Why isn't crop burning banned, why isn't there an alternative? Why aren't crackers banned? Why are we allowing low intensity low sound crackers? Why are crackers being allowed to be burnt between 9 pm to 10 pm?Who will hold those accountable who will still burn crackers despite the ban? Why aren't diesel vehicles banned? Why isn't there a limit to the number of cars a family owns? Why don't we have learnings from countries like US and China as to how they curb pollution? According to the World Bank , China is one of the few countries which is rapidly increasing its forest cover to manage and reduce air pollution. It is a really dismal state of affairs.

I don't know when our government will wake up and do something but we surely can.

a) Ensure that your kids don't burn any crackers this Diwali and teach them how they need to care for our environment.

b) If possible walk with your child to the market or their class if possible (i.e if it is not too far) or use cycles.

c) Plant as many trees as you can with your children, if possible around your house or a nearby park.

d) Ensure that you child is using the bus to go school or do a carpool with other kids.

f) Use air purifying plants like Aloe Vera, Tulsi , Areca Palm in and around your house.

e) Make your child have jaggery and Vitamin C during the winters as recommended by many pediatricians, it is good for boosting immunity. The presence of magnesium strengthens and relaxes bronchial muscles which further regularizes breathing in children. The iron in jaggery also boosts the respiratory system.

f) Give steam inhalations regularly to your children at night.

g) Take your children to greener areas early in the morning and make your child do breathing exercises.

i) Use N-99 masks like Vogmask when outside and air purifiers with hepa filters like the ones from SHARP to reduce indoor pollution.

j) Make sure that they have a bath and rinse their mouths when they come from outside.

k) During peak smog , keep your children indoors. The lowest level of pollution is from 12pm to 5pm when the sun is out.

l) Make them drink plenty of fluids to flush out toxins.

m) Use heavy curtains in the rooms to prevent pollutants from entering. Keep all doors and windows closed during peak smog, but do open in the afternoon for about 2 hours.

n) Ensure that your children avoid strenous activity and sports during peak smog.

o) Don't burn garbage and use sustainable waste management.

p) Use nasofilters, they get attached to your nose, easier to use than a mask. They are available on Amazon. These filters have been developed by IIT alumini and very affordable.