In India, Air So Dirty Your Head Hurts<br />8, 2017<br />NEW DELHI — A toxic cloud has descended on India’s capital, delaying flights<br />and trains, causing coughs, headaches and even highway pileups, and prompting Indian officials on Wednesday to take the unprecedented step of closing 4,000 schools for nearly a week.<br />"I immediately told my officers to pass the order to close all the schools." In some parts of the city, the levels of PM 2.5 — insidiously small particles<br />that can settle deep in the lungs — had climbed to more than 700 micrograms per cubic meter, which is considered hazardous to breathe, according to data provided by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.<br />On Wednesday evening, Delhi officials decided to halt some construction projects — to reduce airborne dust —<br />and ban some classes of heavy trucks from entering the city.<br />In a statement released on Wednesday, Mr. Sisodia said the air pollution had "engulfed the city." Pollution levels will be reassessed over the weekend, he said,<br />and a decision made about whether schools should remain closed for longer.<br />Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi State, said he was driving to a meeting Wednesday<br />morning when he passed a school bus and saw two children throwing up out of the window.<br />Air pollution levels this year are on par with ones recorded in the city last November,<br />when the Indian government closed 1,800 primary schools for three days.
