In India breathing can be poisonous
It is a substance that contains different types of volatile organic compounds that may be of vegetable origin, but are also capable of forming in the air as a result of environmental contamination and the occurrence of fires. Yes, formaldehyde oscillates in high concentrations in good part of the sky of India, which speaks once again of the problem of environmental pollution in the Asian country.
The Belgian scientist Isabelle De Smedt, of the Royal Institute of Space Aeronomy of the European nation, told international media that the concentration of formaldehyde, a gas of biogenic origin, varies in the atmosphere depending on the region, oscillating, generally, between concentrations of 50 and 80 percent. The researcher clarified that, if this percentage increases, it is a clear signal that in that region there is pollution and fires, which are frequently caused by the burning of coal, forest fires and agricultural fires.
It happens that when the volatile organic compounds that formaldehyde contains join with the molecules of nitrogen dioxide or react to the sun, ozone is produced, and it is an irritant substance capable of causing serious health problems.
India is positioned in the list of countries where agricultural fires are very frequent. Recently the appearance of a cloud, detected by the new Sentinel-5P satellite, launched by the European Space Agency on its territory, is also closely related to the fact that the residents of this country also use considerable amounts of wood in their homes to cook and warm your rooms.
The Tropomi tool used by the satellite was the one that made possible the discovery of the cloud, which, in addition to detecting formaldehyde, traces the presence in the atmosphere of other substances such as sulfur dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, among others. It is, without a doubt, much more advanced than the Omi spectrometer system, its predecessor, which flies on board a US satellite, since it can collect atmospheric data in a matter of a month, while Omi does it over a period of six months.
In 2014, the World Health Organization declared New Delhi the city with the highest level of atmospheric pollution. Recently the authorities in New Delhi launched a pilot scheme to improve air quality in the city, the most polluted in the world according to the international body, for example, last December, the National Green Court of India banned the registration of new diesel cars in the capital of the country.
