Top

India's air quality forces millionaire to walk-out of podcast midway

"Air pollution has been so normalized in India that no one even notices anymore despite the science of its negative effects being well known."

A tech millionaire caused a stir after he walked out of a podcast citing poor air quality in India.

Bryan Johnson, a 47-year-old tech millionaire and an anti-aging advocate was recently seen in a podcast with 'Zerodha' co-founder Nikhil Kamath during his visit to India in December last year. However, he walked out midway leaving the internet in splits.
After returning back to the U.S., Johnson revealed that he felt a burning sensation in his eyes and throat due to the poor air quality in the room. It also made his skin rash, which is why he left the podcast halfway.
While sharing his podcast experience on 'X', Johnson said, "When in India, I did end this podcast early due to the bad air quality. @nikhilkamathcio was a gracious host and we were having a great time. The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air which made the air purifier I'd brought with me ineffective."
"Inside, the AQI was 130 and PM2.5 was 75 µg/m³, which is equal to smoking 3.4 cigarettes for 24 hours of exposure," he said.
While recollecting his experience of staying in India, he shared his worries regarding the normalisation of Air Pollution in India, "This was my third day in India and the air pollution had made my skin break out in a rash and my eyes and throat burn."
"Air pollution has been so normalized in India that no one even notices anymore despite the science of its negative effects being well known. People would be outside running. Babies and small children exposed from birth. No one wore a mask which can significantly decrease exposure. It was so confusing," he wrote on X.
"The evidence shows that India would improve the health of its population more by cleaning up air quality than by curing all cancers."
"I am unsure why India's leaders do not make air quality a national emergency. I don't know what interests, money and power keep things the way they are but it's really bad for the entire country, " he further mentioned.
In the same tweet he further mentioned how obesity is increasing in America, and how it has been normalised there.

"When I returned to the U.S., my eyes were fresh to see what is normal to me. I saw obesity everywhere. 42.4% of Americans are obese and because I was around it all the time, I had been mostly oblivious to it, he wrote on text.

"In many contexts, obesity is worse than air pollution in the long term."
"Why wouldn't American leaders declare a national emergency on obesity? What interests, money and power keep things the way they are but are really bad for the entire country," he concluded.
Meanwhile, the incident has reignited the online debate on India's air quality.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
Next Story