Under the ‘no idling’ campaign, which is a part of the mandate of Breathe Easy Stay Tough, school students came out on Wednesday morning to give an anti-air pollution message to the vehicle commuters and parents, to stop idling when the car is halting for more than 10 seconds.
Students formed a human chain and stationed outside the pick-up and drop points of the schools giving out key messages to the drivers, parents and others to engage in the responsible use of private vehicles.
When there is excessive vehicular movement and idling around schools, the toxic fumes cross the school boundary and affect the children studying inside the classroom or children playing inside the school ground. Readings taken from Atmos Air Quality Monitors, suggest that PM 2.5 values spike up to 40 per cent more than the average PM levels inside the school area at the pick-up and drop timings.
Ambient Air Pollution and Household Air Pollution contributed to respiratory tract infections that resulted in 5,43,000 deaths in children under 5 years in 2016. Studies by the World Health Organization have revealed that, globally, 93 per cent of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines.
According to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 2016, Vehicular emissions contribute to 9 per cent of PM 10 and 20 per cent of the total PM 2.5 load in the national capital region.
