Even as smog towers are being pitched as a solution to combat rising air pollution across India, health professionals advise that Mumbai or a state like Maharashtra should not waste money on them. Given that the onset of winter is few months away and issues pertaining to air pollution will resurface, medical practitioners and experts have said that smog towers are of no use for the city. Doctors also advised that the governments invest in real and more effective solutions, such as air quality monitoring and prompt public health advisories for poor air days to deal with air pollution, experts said.

‘An expensive affair’

Speaking at the India Clean Air Summit 2022 (ICAS 2022), a four-day event in Bengaluru on the theme ‘Looking at Air Pollution through the Climate Lens’ organised by the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Dr Harshal Salve, additional professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) outlined the fundamental limits of smog towers. “The principal reason is that they are expensive and have little or no actual influence on citizens’ exposure to air pollution,” Salve stated.