There are many things that people can do to protect its health and limit the artificial damage that is caused by desired of tasty food and drinks. For example, in food and drinks section, you can opt to switch for different type of diets based on you goal. For Weight Loss – High-protein, fiber-rich, and portion-controlled meals, for Muscle Gain – Higher protein intake with complex carbs and healthy fats, for Heart Health – Mediterranean diet (olive oil, nuts, fish, whole grains), for Diabetes Management – Low glycemic index (GI) foods, fiber, and lean proteins. etc.
In general, you can avoid processed foods – Chips, packaged snacks, and fast-food high in trans fats, Refined Sugars – Sugary drinks, candies, pastries that cause insulin spikes, Excess Salt – Can lead to high blood pressure (avoid processed and canned foods), Unhealthy Fats – Fried foods, hydrogenated oils, margarine, Alcohol & Caffeine in Excess – Can dehydrate and affect sleep. You can also opt for efficient water purifier for clean and healthy water. On top of all these, daily exercise will make you fitter and brings some level of mental calmness amid all work-related chaos.
The one thing you cannot control is air you breath from the surroundings. One can always argue to move in the country where air quality is better, but for most of the people living in India, it’s not an option. Recently I came across a podcast by Nikhil Kamath featuring Brayan Johnson, Nitin Kamath, Prashanth, Jitendra, and Seema (YouTube: https://youtu.be/fEUoJSTYtyc?si=ida-KgURBVNrIExH ) on the topic of longevity. The podcast was shooting in Bandra, Mumbai in sea faced building where AQI was ~120. Brayan Johnson could not handle this and left in the midway. For us it would be surprising, and we might ridicule him for doing this because we are living perfect health life (at least we think in our mind that!) despite of this poor AQI. This incident has shattered the myth of most of us that only Delhi is facing the problem of air pollution.
Here is the extract of post shared on X by Nitin Kamath: “The biggest takeaway for me after meeting @bryan_johnson was debunking the myth I once believed: that only Delhi in India has an air quality problem—and that it occurs only in winter.
We recorded @nikhilkamathcio’s (link in the following tweet) WTF podcast in a sea-facing apartment in Bandra, Mumbai, and the AQI was a whopping 160+. If the AQI was this high in Bandra, just imagine the levels in the more crowded parts of the town.
Later, I got an AQI meter for our office in J.P. Nagar—a quiet corner of Bengaluru—and was shocked to see it reading 120+. Again, imagine how much worse it might be in the busier parts of the city. What makes matters trickier in Bengaluru is the dust from the ongoing construction boom and poor roads.”
Similarly, Bryan Johnson also shared on X “When in India, I did end this podcast early due to the bad air quality. @nikhilkamathcio was a gracious host and we were having a great time. The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air which made the air purifier I’d brought with me ineffective. Inside, the AQI was 130 and PM2.5 was 75 µg/m³, which is equal to smoking 3.4 cigarettes for 24 hours of exposure.
This was my third day in India and the air pollution had made my skin break out in rash and my eyes and throat burn. Air pollution has been so normalized in India that no one even notices anymore despite the science of its negative effects being well known. People would be outside running. Babies and small children exposed from birth. No one wore a mask which can significantly decrease exposure. It was so confusing.”
When our team was doing research on AQI of different cities of India, we were shocked to see the data. All the data was referenced from https://www.aqi.in Take a look at below AQI charts of different cities.
Pune:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 110, 2023 was 114 and 2024 was 105. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Mumbai:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 114, 2023 was 109 and 2024 was 101. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Bangalore:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 86, 2023 was 79 and 2024 was 73. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Kanpur:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 133, 2023 was 118 and 2024 was 118. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Kolkata:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 113, 2023 was 118 and 2024 was 118. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Chennai:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 84, 2023 was 91 and 2024 was 83. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Vishakhapatnam:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 98, 2023 was 114 and 2024 was 98. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Thiruvananthapuram:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 79, 2023 was 71 and 2024 was 82. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Panaji:
- Annual AQI of 2022 was 84, 2023 was 85 and 2024 was 87. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality.
Thiruvananthapuram:
Annual AQI of 2022 was 79, 2023 was 71 and 2024 was 82. AQI between 0-50 is considered as good quality
We can go on and list down every city of India, more than 80% of Indian cities will throw AQI > 50 across the year. This data is really concerning and alarming. The long-term exposure in the environment which has AQI> 50 has severe impact on health that can lead to Respiratory Issues like Increased risk of asthma, bronchitis, and lung infections, Cardiovascular Diseases like Fine particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) increases the risk of heart attacks & strokes, Neurological & Cognitive Effects like Prolonged exposure to air pollution increases the risk of dementia & Alzheimer’s, Immune System Weakening causing frequent colds, flu, and allergies. It has also impact on Children & Pregnant Women including birth defects, stunted lung development & low birth weight.
What’s happening worldwide, take a look at few international cities and their AQI (All the data was referenced from https://www.aqi.in). Below is for last 30days, but still looks far better than similar time-frame data of Indian cities.
Berlin: New York:
Tokyo Taipei:
Tackling the inevitable challenge through government intervention:
Now we all are aware that being a developing country, we have construction going on in almost every city, be it roads, buildings, houses, offices. Dust, vehicle emissions, power-plant emissions are the major source of PM2.5. Here are some solutions that government can bring through its policies. Government should prioritize this topic and make a task force to submit national action plan to tackle air pollution.
- Securitize the construction activities, mandate them to cover the area of under construction to limit the dust spread.
- Municipalities and local government can focus on making roads and highways dust free with daily cleaning with advanced machinery.
- Power plants and industrial plants needs to have better chimney which can filter most of pollutant air. There needs to be a regular inspection.
- Government can install high quality air purifiers to reduce AQI in targeted areas. Plant trees near roads, factories, and high-traffic areas to trap pollutants. Urban planning should include green belts & vertical gardens in polluted areas.
Citizen’s contribution and remedies to breath better quality Air:
While we expect government to take initiative and gives its citizens better quality air to live, we as citizens can do out bit as well.
- Like in past we have made clean water an electorate issue, we also need to step up and demand our public representative on every level to address this issue. We need ask them for dust free roads, more trees, and gardens in our area.
- We need to use public dustbins as more as possible, avoid throwing anything on roads and help to clean the environment.
- While we can’t wear mask the whole way, at least we can put on mask while travelling to work, in crowded places.
- We can try to make our home more breathable by having more plants and vertical gardens in our galleries. If you can afford buy the quality air purifier for home. It can cost you around 20k but this investment will be worth it.
We can understand that it is a generational issue and will not be solved immediately, but if we don’t speak up now our children will be in much worse condition than we are today. We owe it to our future generations to leave a better planet for them.
