Breathless In Bangalore - What Benzene-Rich Diesel Generator Exhaust Can Do For YOU!

[hatrack]

BANGALORE: The air that you breathe in is laced with benzene, and if you choked on that, here is another hard home truth: there is no solution to the benzene breath as long as diesel generator sets are pumping out energy to sustain economic activity.

Erratic power supply, which is a bugbear for both industry and the homemaker, is giving rise to the increasing use of diesel generators (DG). There are thousands operating on any given day in Bangalore.

There is another, bigger evil. Construction activity is kicking up enough dust to blanket the city, with 2,000-odd government sites where construction activity is underway to make Bangalore beautiful.

A source apportionment study completed last month by the Central Pollution Control Board across six cities in India, reveals that the level of benzene is high in Bangalore, and that DG sets are the major culprits for the polluted air. What is even more dangerous than these revelations is that you have to continue to breathe this air as there are no solutions in sight. While the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has thrown up its hands in despair and said that for a power-starved state, DG sets are the only answer, stopping construction work is impossible. "It is an essential evil and the state's economy will suffer as industries will shut if there is no alternate power. We cannot restrict them. The only solution is uninterrupted power supply,'' KSPCB chairman A S Sadashivaiah told The Times of India.

EDIT

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Why-youre-breathless-in-Bangalore/articleshow/7324272.cms