Clean Air

Air pollution is among the largest health problems India faces, and unlike most items on this site it is not primarily an individual matter. It still helps to know what is within your control.

Why it matters

Fine particulate matter - PM2.5 - is small enough to reach deep into the lungs and cross into the bloodstream. It is linked to asthma, COPD, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and to poorer birth outcomes and childhood lung development. In much of northern India, winter exposure alone is substantial.

What actually reduces exposure

Indoor cooking smoke is the largest single source for many households. Ventilation while cooking and a clean fuel are among the highest-value health changes available in India.

Check the daily AQI and shift outdoor exercise to better hours - and indoors on the worst days. Exercising hard in heavy pollution means breathing far more of it.

A properly fitted N95 works outdoors on bad days. Cloth and surgical masks do not filter PM2.5.

An air purifier with a genuine HEPA filter measurably reduces indoor particulates in a closed room. Ionisers and "ozone generators" do not, and ozone is itself a lung irritant.

Houseplants do not clean indoor air at any meaningful rate. The study behind that claim was done in a sealed laboratory chamber, and a room is not one.

See a doctor about

A cough that persists after air quality improves, worsening breathlessness, or wheezing. Children and older adults are affected first and worst.