Kejriwal tweets picture of ‘black lung’ to prove #DelhiChokes

In the picture, the lung of the person from Delhi appears darker while the other appears healthy.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has shared pictures of the lungs of two people on Twitter in an attempt to educate the citizens about the hazardous levels of pollution in the city.

One pair of lungs belong to a 55-year-old person from Himachal Pradesh and the other was that of a 52-year-old person in Delhi (Kejriwal’s Twitter Handle)

The chief minister said on Thursday that one pair of lungs belong to a 55-year-old person from Himachal Pradesh and the other was that of a 52-year-old person in Delhi. He added that they were sent to him by renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Naresh Trehan.

In the picture, the lung of the person from Delhi appears darker while the other appears healthy. Dr Trehan told a news channel that the darker, ‘black lung’ has a huge amount of charcoal deposit due to pollution.

The pollution level in the national capital has reached such alarming proportions that it prompted the Delhi high court to compare the city to a gas chamber recently.

It is estimated to be roughly one and a half times worse than in Beijing, where a single day of normal breathing can bring in the equivalent of 40 cigarettes-worth of carcinogens.

A study by IndiaSpend shows that Delhi’s PM 2.5 concentration exceeded 250 µg/m³ thrice over the last week, placing it under ‘severe’ category. The ‘severe’ rating means the PM 2.5 concentration is so high that it might affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases. Beijing, by comparison, recorded ‘severe’ rating only once in the same period.

Last year, a study by the World Health Organization found that Delhi had the dirtiest atmosphere of 1,600 cities around the world for PM2.5 particles.

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