'Smoggy' Delhi's air quality now worse than 'world's most polluted city' Beijing

Daily pollution figures collected from New Delhi reveal that the city’s air is laden with dangerous small particles of pollution.

Beijing`s US Embassy sent out warnings in mid-January, when a measure of harmful fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 rocketed above 500, in the upper reaches of the measurement scale, for the first time this year.

This refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter believed to pose the greatest health risk as it penetrates deeply into lungs.

However, for the first three weeks of this year, New Delhi’s average daily peak of fine particulate matter from Punjabi Bagh, a monitor whose readings are often lower than those of other cities and independent monitors, was 473, which was twice more than the average of 227 in Beijing, the Verge reported.

By the time pollution moved breached the mark of 500 in Beijing for the first time on the night of Jan. 15, Delhi had eight such days.