NEW DELHI (AP) — A toxic blanket of grey smog hangs over New Delhi’s monuments and high-rises. Authorities are struggling to rein in severe air pollution levels, an annual and chronic health crisis that disrupts the lives of over 20 million in the city every year. On Tuesday, the air quality index veered close to the 400 mark for tiny particulate matter, a level considered hazardous and more than 10 times the global safety threshold, according to SAFAR, India’s main environmental monitoring agency. The severe air pollution crisis affects every resident in the city, but the millions who work outdoors are even more vulnerable. "If I had had employment back home, I wouldn’t have come to Delhi to work.”

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Persons: SAFAR, ”, Srinivas Rao, Gulshan Kumar Organizations: DELHI, Authorities, Sri, Arun, Indian, Meteorology, Living Sciences Locations: Andhra Pradesh, India, New Delhi, Bangladesh, Pune . New Delhi, Bihar, ”, Delhi