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After several hurdles, a consignment of air-monitoring devices that calculate nicotine levels in buildings has finally reached the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD), which is coordinating with the Health Ministry in its fight against tobacco. With the aim of making Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad smoke-free, Johns Hopkins University sent 160 air-nicotine monitors

Continuous ambient air quality monitoring systems are to be installed at two locations in the city in the first week of next month. Officials of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) said the equipment, each costing around Rs.70 lakh, would be installed at IIT-Madras, near the Velachery gate of the campus, and Metropolitan Transport Corporation depot in Alandur. The systems would be installed by the Central Pollution Control Board.

NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE: Pollution, congested development and lack of a railway system such as the MRTS are depriving residents of north Chennai of quality life. A picture of contrast between Tondiarpet and Saidapet. The lines dividing north and south Chennai are not only drawn across access to quality healthcare, education or the standard of living but also physically drawn by the Railways.

*Not only are levels of Suspended Particulate Matter above permissible limits in Mumbai, but the worst pollutant after vehicular emissions has grown at an alarming rate. *Construction work among main causes; respiratory diseases are on the rise, say doctors Despite all the efforts to reign in pollution in the financial capital, data collected by a slew of mobile air quality monitoring vans across the city have some alarming news: The levels of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM), or dust, in Mumbai's air have continued to increase over the past three years.