Red-eyed residents cough, everything smells of smoke, and cars shine their headlights in the middle of the day. Smog has again blanketed Pakistan's Lahore, and its citizens are becoming desperate.
The megacity of nearly 11 million people near the border with India was once the ancient capital of the Mughal Empire and remains Pakistan's cultural epicentre.
But now it regularly ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution—a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalescing into stagnant clouds.
Syed Hasnain is visibly exhausted as he waits on his four-year-old son who has been admitted at the city's Mayo Hospital.
"He was coughing and not able to breathe properly and had a high temperature. We thought maybe it is coronavirus so we brought him to the hospital. But the doctors told us he has developed pneumonia because of the smog," Hasnain tells AFP.
"It's very worrisome," he admits. "I knew that the smog can be bad for health—but I didn't know it would be so bad that my son would be hospitalised."
Teachers also worry for the children.
"The pollution is a problem even inside class. We see children with red eyes and irritation, others continually cough," Nadia Sarwar, a government school teacher, tells AFP.
One child, who has asthma, has had to stay home for several days because he kept suffering attacks, she says.
Across the border, Delhi has closed schools until the end of the month because of its...
Read Full Story: https://phys.org/news/2021-11-thought-covid-smog-life-polluted.html
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