Residents Of Delhi "Dying One Breath At A Time"; Non-Smokers' Lung Cancer Cases Increasing
EDIT
Sharing the images with The Hindu, Prof. Arvind Kumar, Chairman, Centre for Chest Surgery and Lung Transplantation, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said: “These images say it all.” We are currently in a state of emergency and our lungs are only indicative of the poison that we are subjecting our bodies to. In the 90’s, doctors would see pink lungs, which is an indication of relatively clean and healthy respiratory system. We would see carbon and other toxic deposits only among smokers. Sadly the trend has changed for the worst. Now we are seeing a sharp rise in lung cancer among women who are non-smokers and also don’t have partners who smoke,” explained the doctor.
But the absolute worst, Dr. Kumar said, is what he has been seeing recently. “We are now seeing teenaged patients who have lungs with black spots, which is an indication of toxic deposits due to air pollution. This is definitely a bad indicator. Children and the elderly are the worst hit by pollution.” He added that these black deposits, which settle on the surface of lungs, are toxics substances and gases which can cause extensive and irreversible damage to all organs of the body. Among children, they can even cause developmental issues.
“We are all living and breathing in a gas chamber. Delhiites are gasping for breath, coughing relentlessly, fighting deadly pneumonia and finding themselves in the emergency departments of hospitals whereas children here are on nebulizers. We takes approximately 25,000 breaths a day on average and each breath of this polluted air is slowly killing us,” he says.
Environment activists, medical research journals and other sources have long been warning against the rising health and economic crisis related to air pollution. As per the government’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, at any given time, Delhi’s air is 7 to 12 times more polluted than the permissible limits set by World Health Organisation.
EDIT
= new reply since forum marked as read
