To Breathe In Delhi Means Inhaling (On Average) The Equivalent Of Half A Pack Of Cigarettes Every Day
NEW DELHI — Tens of millions of people in India’s capital city are breathing in polluted air that is equivalent to smoking roughly nine cigarettes a day, or about half of a standard pack, according to a Washington Post analysis of 2½ months of government data. Every winter, for months at a time, Delhi is blanketed by toxic smog, and this year has been no different. Though people try to limit the time they spend outside, children need to go to school, parents need to go to the office, and most days the roadways are still choked with motorcycles and scooters and rickshaws, navigating through a sepia haze. Delivery drivers, bricklayers and others who spend their days outdoors are especially vulnerable.
To quantify the toxicity of the air and its impact on human health, The Post analyzed 75 days of Indian government pollution data — spanning Oct. 18 to Dec. 31 — from 40 air monitoring stations spread across the capital region. Each station collects hourly data on chemicals in the atmosphere, such as particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) and particulate matter 10 (PM 10), which are known to cause lung and heart issues when inhaled in large amounts.
Reporters calculated the daily average of PM 2.5, the most harmful measure of India’s poisonous air, then converted those figures into daily cigarette intake using a formula developed by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. The Post verified its calculations with researchers at the University of Chicago and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an independent climate think tank that provided the government pollution data.
While the data averaged out to nine cigarettes a day per person across Delhi, some days were much worse — and some neighborhoods were more adversely affected. On Dec. 14, for example, Delhiites inhaled air that was as toxic as smoking almost 18 cigarettes a day. And in Wazirpur, an industrial area in the city’s northwest, residents breathed in a daily average of 12 cigarettes.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/01/25/india-pollution-winter-toxic-air/