Pre-emptive eye care for a smoggy winter: An expert's advice

With the festival season well on its way, the festive lights are lit brightly! However, the approaching winter sees our cities slip into a familiar pattern. Cooler temperatures, slower winds and temperature inversion where a warm layer over cold air traps pollutants close to the ground, leading to the phenomenon we know as “smog”. Our eyes are often the first to protest with stinging, watering, reddening, well before our lungs show symptoms. This winter, let’s break the cycle with pre-emptive preventive eye care! Last year, the capital city area showed hazardous night-time spikes in pollution, with PM2.5 levels peaking far above safe thresholds. Pollution reached 603 µg/m³ at night, many times above the safety standard and with immediate health risk. For context, India’s 24-hour limit