With nearly all residential societies, malls, offices and homes surviving on generator sets in Gurgaon, serious air pollution is but only inevitable. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) sources, levels of particulate matter exceed prescribed limits for most of the day several times over in the city. An analysis in December 2005 revealed that against a prescribed limit of 80 micrograms/cubic metre, NO2 averaged 283 micrograms/cubic metre. PM10 was a whopping 721 micrograms/cubic metre against a limit of 100. The levels of CO shot up three times to 6,240 micrograms/cubic metre against the permissible limit of 2,000 in the evenings. The alarm bells started ringing then, and matters have only become worse since. According to CPCB, pollution from generator sets stands second only to vehicular pollution, and in a city like Gurgaon, which is completely generator-dependent, the situation is close to getting out of hand. Gensets emit dangerous gases like CO and NOx which have a terrible impact on health thanks to greater personal exposure levels.
