Air Pollution A Public Health Emergency: Padma Awardee Doctors Issue Urgent Advisory On 5 Live

In this Special Report on 5 Live, anchor Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor discusses the 'extraordinary alarm' raised by India's top medical experts regarding the toxic air crisis. Padma Bhushan awardees Dr Amrish Mittal and Dr Ashok Seth explain why air pollution is now a 'public health emergency', linking it to diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks. Dr Seth describes the situation as living in a 'gas chamber' and compares breathing the air to smoking 40 cigarettes a day. The programme also features Chandra Bhushan, CEO of iFOREST, who reveals a new study showing that official data misses over 90% of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana because satellites only monitor during midday, while farmers have shifted burning to after 3 PM.