* Occurrence of respiratory diseases in Delhi is 12 times more than the national average.

* Respiratory diseases caused by air pollution claimed the lives of 9,164 Delhiites in 2007, compared to 6,014 deaths in the year before that. The government report on births and deaths pegs deaths due to “other causes” at 83,109.

* In 2007, an average of 963 new private vehicles were registered everyday.

* Legal action was taken against 1,478 vehicles by the DPCC for “excess visible smoke” from April 2006 to February 2007.

Expert study figures
* Air samples taken by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) from 5 areas in 2007 show a considerable rise in air pollution over the prescribed ambient air quality standard of 200 micrograms per cubic metre.
* At Connaught Place, the density of air pollutants at peak hours ranges between 286 and 617 micrograms per cubic metre.
* At South Extension, the density ranges between 288 and 606 micrograms per cubic metre.
* At Karol Bagh, the density ranges between 422 and 976 micrograms per cubic metre.
* At ISBT, Kashmere Gate, the density ranges between 314 and 520 micrograms per cubic metre.
* At Dwarka, the density ranges between 153 and 588 micrograms per cubic metre.
* The annual average level of respirable suspended particulates in 2007 was 136 micrograms per cubic metre, alarmingly close to the level of pre-CNG years at 143 micrograms per cubic metre, says a study by the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE).
* A survey report in the 2007 Indian Journal of Paediatrics says 191 (14.6 per cent) of 1,307 children living in slums in the Trans-Yamuna area, all below five years of age, had had an attack of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) in two weeks.