Air quality index (AQI) has been deteriorating rapidly across cities in our country. Raising awareness and pointing out the highly polluted and toxic air in Lucknow city, a white model of lungs was installed at the Jhandi Park near Nagar Nigam office on Thursday which turned black within 24 hours.
Ekta Shekhar, the Director of Climate Agenda said, “This shows the air quality here. It took six days for the lungs to turn black in Delhi, 18 days in Bengaluru.”
Ekta further added that the white model of human lungs, which had high-efficiency particulate absorber (HEP) filters, were set up to keep a check on the air quality in the city. “In Lucknow, the lungs turned black by the very next day of the installation, within 24 hours. We had used HEPA filters.” Shekhar added, “There are loopholes in the National Clean Air Programme of the government. Till the time they are not addressed, the situation won’t be better in the state.”
Earlier in November, a similar installation replicating human lungs was placed at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, as a part of a campaign by Help Delhi Breathe initiative, Lung Care Foundation and the hospital.
Shockingly, after being exposed to the polluted air of Delhi, the artificial lung turned from white to black within 48 hours. This evident contrast of colours in the Artificial Lungs within hours depicts the plight of the cities dealing with environmental air pollution.
