Inside Delhi’s first ever clinic dedicated to pollution-related illnesses, Deepak Rajak struggles to catch his breath. The 64-year-old’s asthma has worsened in recent days, and his daughter rushed him to the clinic, anxious about his rapidly deteriorating health. Sitting in the waiting room, Rajak tells CNN he has become “very breathless” and cannot stop coughing. “It’s impossible to breathe. I just came by bus, and I felt like I was suffocating,” he says.
The specialist clinic at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohiya (RML) hospital was set up last year to treat the growing number of patients affected by hazardous air pollution, which worsens every winter in the Indian capital. Outside, a throat-searing blanket of toxic smog has settled over the city since late last month, turning day into night, disrupting flights, blocking buildings from view and endangering the lives of millions of people.
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