NEW DELHI: Severe pollution has brought along fear and panic in Delhi’s air: schools are cancelling outdoor activities, parents are mulling relocating or sending children away to boarding schools, and air purifiers and pollution masks are flying off the shelves like never before.Popular websites and chemists have either run out of masks or are loaded with orders for masks and air purifiers even as air quality in the national capital has plunged to hazardous levels since the start of Diwali celebrations and scientists have predicted no significant improvement for at least a couple of more days.Medicine.com, a popular chemist shop in Greater Kailash in south Delhi, ran out of stock of Vog masks priced Rs 2,200 apiece in just one day after Diwali. “This is not a season for air masks. This is the first time we are seeing a demand in November itself. We were not prepared for this surge in demand,” said Rajesh Kumar, owner of the shop.Amazon.in said sales of pollution masks have jumped six times in the last few days with customer demand being 13 times more than last year, with demand coming mostly from northern India led by Delhi. The highest number of orders for pollution masks were placed by customers on November 1, a day after Diwali, a company spokesperson said. Dettol Air Protect mask is the bestseller on Amazon followed by Atlanta Healthcare Cambridge N99 mask.Air purifier sales on Amazon last month was three times more than in September and four times the sales in October 2015. “About 50% of our orders are coming from customers belonging to cities like Delhi, Gurgaon and Bengaluru apart from other metros.With the onset of winters and the growing smog/fog situation in cities during this time of the year, we expect the customer demand for air purifiers to peak over the next three months,” Amazon spokesperson said. Bursting of crackers during Diwali worsened the capital’s already poor air quality impacted by construction activities, road traffic and burning of crops in neighbouring states among other causes.According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) under Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, levels of particulate matter 2.5—or fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres—over Delhi was 449 microgram per cubic metre on Thursday. This number is significantly higher than the worst ‘severe’ category listed on Safar website at 251-350. Levels of PM10 particles was at 564 on Thursday while Safar’s worst ‘severe’ category is 450-550.This has prompted doctors to warn people, particularly children, elderly and those with lungs and heart conditions, to stay indoors.“Children are easy victims of the pollution as their lungs are growing and they have higher cell division, so pollutants find more space in them,” said Dr Vivek Jain, head of department of neonatology at Fortis Hospital . Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri has cancelled outdoor trips organised for its students due to the high air pollution levels.Ritu Singh Deo, mother of Sankriti student Jaivardhan, said she is seriously looking at putting her 10-year-old in a boarding school away from the city due to air pollution. Another parent, Pooja Sabharwal, and her husband are planning to relocate out of Delhi, because their daughter is allergic to dust.Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal of Springdales School in New Delhi, said, “We are telling parents that if their children are asthmatic or have allergies, they children can stay at home for the time being.”The poor quality of air in Delhi is a cause for concern. The Centre and the state are making some efforts to ameliorate the condition. But a band-aid approach will not work. Holding meetings and making declarations when things get out of control will not do. There is a need for systemic and sustained interventions, addressing the sources of pollution and taking steps to tackle the problem at source. Air pollution is a serious problem that has public health implications, and adverseely affects everyone.