A model of the human lungs was mounted on a board and displayed outside Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on November 3 in New Delhi. In the next 48 hours, the while lungs turned grey. By the 10th day, they were black.
Dr Arvind Kumar, the chairman of the Centre for Chest Surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the founder trustee of the Lung Care Foundation, explained that the installation was put up in a collaboration with Ganga Ram, the Lung Care Foundation and Help Delhi Breathe to show citizens what is happening inside our lungs.
The model, Kumar explained, was fitted with HEPA filters that are used in operation theatres to keep the air inside as pure as possible. The fake lungs were also fitted with fans, so that they suck in air like our real lungs. The installation mimicked real human lungs structurally.
'I am sorry to report that within two hours, the colour has already started changing,' the doctor said in a video that is now widely in circulation in social media.
Since Diwali, Delhi-NCR has seen smog levels rise and the Air Quality Index dip to severe, the lowest on the gradation scale. Nasa Earth Observatory pictures show that just before Diwali, instances of crop stubble burning, which adds to the bad air over Delhi, had also risen.
