City breathes ‘poor’ air for 2nd day; smog to intensify | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The air quality in the city remained in ‘poor’ category for the second consecutive day on Monday with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 205. As pollution levels peaked, a thick layer of smog engulfed the city in the evening. Weather experts have predicted that smog will intensify in the coming days as the temperatures will dip further.On Sunday too, the air was ‘poor’ with AQI 208, while on Saturday the air quality was ‘moderate’ with AQI of 161. At six locations in the city, the PM2.5 concentration peaked above 300 micrograms on Monday — five times more than the permissible limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre of air. As per the live air quality monitoring stations, the average maximum PM2.5 concentration recorded was 363 micrograms at Kendriya Vidyalaya Aliganj, 322 at BBAU near Shaheed Path, 302 in Gomtinagar, and 180 at Kukrail picnic spot. At these six locations, PM10 was double the permissible limit of 100.An expert on air pollution, associate Prof Alfred Lawrence of Isabella Thoburn College, said, “The biggest contributor to air pollution in the city is vehicular emission. Traffic snarls and construction activities further add to pollution levels.”He said immediate measures like sprinkling water to bring down pollution levels, covering construction sites with green nets, easing out traffic snarls are needed to control spiralling air pollution levels.
