IMA declares 'health emergency' as smog turns Delhi into a gas chamber

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Air Pollution: Health emergency declared in Delhi
Air Pollution: Health emergency declared in Delhi

New Delhi : A public health emergency has been declared in the national capital after dense layer of smog engulfed it on Tuesday.

The Indian Medical Association's (IMA) declaration came after a US embassy website claimed that levels of the fine pollutants known as PM2.5 have reached above 700 mark at several places in Delhi. The threshold figure for the same stands at 300.

"We have declared a state of public health emergency in Delhi since pollution is at an alarming level+ ," the head of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Krishan Kumar Aggarwal told AFP. "Delhi authorities have to make every possible effort to curb this menace."

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, however, kept on blaming the crop burning in adjoining states as the prime reason behind such a dense smog.

The World Health Organization in 2014 classed New Delhi as the world's most polluted capital, with air quality levels worse than Beijing.

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