Ozone exposure up, experts point at health hazards
New Delhi: With the rising mercury, ozone levels have also increased in the city. An analysis of hourly ozone concentrations for this summer showed that it was above 120 micrograms per cubic metre for 75 hours this season from March 1 to June 8.
Delhi crossed this mark for 11 hours last season, stated the analysis carried out by think tank Envirocatalysts. At 100 hours, the city went beyond the current duration level in the 2019 summer.
The national ambient air quality standard for ozone for an hour is 180 micrograms per cubic metre. Though the city met the standard, experts pointed out that the number of hours showing elevated levels of ozone was higher than in the past few years.
Ozone is a very hazardous gas, resulting in aggravated health impacts even at short-term high exposures and leading to high asthma cases and other respiratory illnesses, said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at Envirocatalysts.
"Higher sunlight and precursor gas emissions from transport, industries and other combustion activities, in the form of NOx and other gases, result in high ozone formation. Rising temperatures and the presence of precursor gases make the summer months more susceptible to high ozone build-up," he said.
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Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said ozone is not directly emitted by any source. "However, gases emitted from vehicles and industry react with each other under the influence of sunlight to form ozone in the air. The ozone levels are usually high during summer months when we notice frequent exceedance. Ozone is a highly reactive gas and can trigger and aggravate serious respiratory and asthma symptoms even after short-duration exposure," she said.
Calling the rising ozone an "emerging air pollution challenge in the city", Roychowdhury emphasised the need to make it the focus of clean air action plans and implementation. "This will require strong curbs on emissions from all sources and also an accelerated zero emissions pathway," she added.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which analysed ground-level ozone in 10 metropolitan cities in 2023 and 2024, found that Delhi-NCR and Mumbai metropolitan region reported higher exceedances of ozone concentration compared to other regions in the country.
TOI reported that the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change informed National Green Tribunal in April that it would constitute an expert committee to study the impact of ozone pollution in cities across the country and submit a report.
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