Pollution pods at UN Climate Summit help people experience Delhi's smog

An immersive art installation at COP25 UN climate conference in Mrid, Spain, is allowing visitors and leers from around world to experience daily reality of air pollution faced by millions in New Delhi, Beijing and or polluted cities.
simulated smog conditions are part of a creative drive for urgent action against air pollution.

One or two minutes inside London-based artist Michael Pinsky's pollution pods and visitors begin experiencing shortness of breath, but re's thing dangerous in air in pods. Safe perfume blends and fog machines have been used to imitate air quality of some of world's most polluted cities -- New Delhi in India, London in Britain, Beijing in China and Sao Paulo in Brazil. pods also have simulations of clean air from cities like Tautra in rway. As people go around y can see contrast between different cities.

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"I have tried to distill whole bodily sense of being in each place through se pollution pods. Being in Sao Paulo, for example, seems like a forest sanctuary as compared to living in Indian capital New Delhi, until your eyes start to get wet from sensation of ethal. On or hand, Tautra is unlike any air you'll have ever bread before. It is very pure," Mr Pinksky said.

He said that while visitors at COP25 will experience sensation of air pollution for a few minutes, breathing toxic air is reality for millions of people every day of ir lives.

Public health priority

Air pollution has been declared a public health priority by World Health Organization (WHO). Largely caused by burning of fossil fuels driving climate change, polluted air poisons nine out of ten people and causes over 7 million premature deaths every year. Children are especially vulnerable, with nearly 6 lakh of m dying prematurely every year from air pollution related diseases.

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As part of Clean Air Initiative, in which governments must commit to making air safe by 2030 at latest, and to encour urgent action on climate change, world leers attending COP25 Summit will be encourd to walk through this viscerally powerful art installation.

"Michael Pinsky responded to a competition from a university in rway in order to see if art can change people's views on climate change," organisers of event said.

"He came up with concept of using air pollution which relates to climate change. He decided to change five different areas of world to depict conditions in which millions of people are living," y ded.

project was brought to Mrid by several ncies including WHO. "We need to agree unequivocally on need for a world free of air pollution. We need all countries and cities to commit to meeting WHO standards for air quality," Tedros ham Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO said in a statement.

Throughout life course, exposure to air pollution is a major risk for chronic heart and respiratory disease and can inhibit proper brain and lung development in children. A study published in Lancet journal showed that 4 million cases of childhood asthma every year could be caused by air pollution resulting from traffic fumes.

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" true cost of climate change is felt in our hospitals and in our lungs. health burden of polluting energy sources is w so high, that moving to cleaner and more sustainable choices for energy supply, transport and food systems effectively pays for itself," said Maria Neira, WHO, Director of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. "When health is taken into account, climate change mitigation is an opportunity, t a cost," she said. pollution pods have been experienced by over 20,000 people since ir launch at Starmus Festival in rway in June 2018.

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