NEW DELHI -- The air pollution in New Delhi is so severe that even nonsmokers living here inhale the equivalent of 50 cigarettes on an extreme day, turning the city of 25 million into what a local political leader describes as "a gas chamber."
With poisonous smog blanketing the city and choking New Delhi's residents day after day since November, inhabitants of India's capital are increasingly looking for ways to shield themselves from the harmful effects of worsening levels of pollution.