Accepted the invite to attend the 12th
International Conference and Exhibition on the issue of Continuous Emissions
Monitoring at Delhi, as since last many years, I am directly
concerned with all such issues. You can take it as my Social responsibility or
the Social cause that I have regularly raised such issues. Had filed my very first RTI at
that time when no one was talking about the issue & those RTIs were duly
covered by Print media as well TV channels.
My idea to accept the three day
conference was that it will give me much more knowledge on the subject and will
add to my experience. So very eagerly and to increase my own awareness on the
issue, I started attending the Conference. There were so many speakers to talk about
various issues & mostly, all of them were from overseas countries. They presented
their research papers in the conference & the audience, including myself,
tried to understand them wholeheartedly.
Speakers included Mr. Robert
Baxter from USA, Mr. Bernhard Thull from Germany, Mr. Rod Robinson from UK, Mr.
Jerome Laplagne from France, Mr. Roland Zepeck from Austria, Mr. Koh Yee Tiong
from Singapore, Dr Carlo Bruno from Italy, Ms. Tuula Pellikka from Finland, as
well many know persons from CSR, CPCB & other connected fields.
During the conference, I got the
opportunity to meet Mr. Erkki Lamminen from Finland who had exhibited an
equipment to measure the SPM 2.5. Soon we became friendly and we went
outside on the road, in the open, near the CBD Ground, Karkardooma, almost at a
distance of one KM from the Anand Vihar, which can be said as the most polluted
area in the National Capital.
On the very first day, we checked
the Real Time status of the SPM 2.5 at around 11am in the morning. Though the
Average was at around 60, the PEAKS were almost 3 to 4 times of the average at
that minute. The cause of concern was that while we are at that location and
while the peaks were up to 3 to 4 times, if we keep inhaling there, what will
happen to our Lungs?
Next morning, we again checked
the status at around same time & this time, SPM 2.5 was at almost 120,
while the peaks were almost double. To my surprise, Mr Lamminen told me that it
Finland, the maximum SPM 2.5 was only up to 10 or 20, and while in New Delhi,
he was already inhaling at at almost 5 to 10 times, and was really worried about
his health.
Surprising factor is that while
Chicago University in its latest study has very clearly stated that if we could
comply with the WHO standards of Air Quality at Delhi, the residents here can
get a life of 9 more years. But seems, no one is concerned, no one is shattered
as there is no hue and cry from any corner. Residents just view the news, read
and forget, as there is no time to consider for an additional life of 6 to 9
years.
