Filthy urban air in winter is a challenge to fitness lovers.
Smog city to clean capital: how Delhi did it,” read a newspaper headline in 2004. Well, those blessed early days of clean CNG fuel are gone. In late 2007, the Centre for Science and Environment announced that the city’s air was worse than it was before CNG, largely due to increase in traffic. For years now, winter has settled on the capital like a dirty, choking brown blanket. And there’s no breeze to shift the murk.
“This winter is not that bad,” says morning jogger Tripta Chandola, between coughs and sniffles, but the smog does makes her morning run “sort of interesting — you can’t spot your regulars”. She used to set off at six in the morning every day, but now “It’s so smoggy and slightly scary, so I go later, 6.30 or 6.45,” when it’s brighter.
Overall air pollution levels are said to be lowest during the darkest night hours, because there’s less traffic and no sunlight to help chemicals in the smog react and turn extra toxic. But those are precisely the hours when one is least likely to exercise outdoors. In Delhi there is the added ingredient of woodsmoke — people burn firewood for food and warmth morning and night, and gardeners burn fallen leaves.
Sunlight triggers the formation of ozone in smog. Ozone penetrates the bronchial lining of the lungs, making them more susceptible to other pollutants and particulate matter. The bronchial tissue reacts and becomes inflamed, and it becomes more difficult to breathe.
And if you’re exercising, you’re breathing deeply. You may also be breathing through your mouth rather than nose, thus bypassing the nasal filters and delivering dirty air straight to your lungs. “When you run and stop immediately,” says Chandola, “you have to take deeper breaths and the irritation is really intense.”
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Rachna Gupta used to be a regular outdoors morning walker, until a cocktail of factors including, besides smog, stray dogs and uneven pavements, turned her into a gym-goer. Because she has a long-standing breathing allergy, the pollution “used to cause me a little bit of headache”. Ultimately, she says, “It’s no longer enjoyable.”
What can you do? Not much. Go out before sunrise, if you can. Pay attention to what your body tells you, and stop for rest if you need to. Above all, take heart: if you’re basically healthy, then exercising, even in smog, is better than not exercising at all.
