Face masks run out as Dehli residents panic over skyrocketing pollution

PanARMENIAN.Net - Soaring levels of pollution are driving panicked residents of the Indian capital, Delhi, to queue up for face masks, leading to shortages across the city.

Already notorious because of its toxic air, pollution in Delhi has skyrocketed over the past week. Measurements of dangerous particles taken at the U.S. Embassy in Delhi put the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) at 999 on Monday, November 7 off the standard chart, which finishes at the "hazardous" level of 500, CNN reports.

The suffocating smog has reduced visibility in the city to just a few meters, and the Delhi government has closed schools for at least three days.

The dire situation has taken anti-pollution devices and attire from niche to mainstream, with a report by research firm TechSci predicting that the air purifier market in India will go from 40,000 units to 100,000 units over the next year and generate over $200 million in revenue by 2021.

"In all of October, we sold about 50 purifiers," said Jay Kannaiyan, the CEO of Smart Air Filters. "Within the first week of November, we've already sold 500."

Those who aren't standing in line are going online, with Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) India confirming that it sold three times as many purifiers in October as it did in September, and four times as many compared to the same period last year. For masks, the demand is thirteen times what it was in 2015.