About ten days ago, the air-conditioner in Chemburkar's car broke down and he had begun travelling with his windows down. On October 15, this insulation contractor with a refrigerator company drove down through the auto fumes and swirling traffic from his residence at Chembur to his worksite at Goregaon. Soon after reaching the site, he became uneasy. ``I started sweating, ran out of breath and felt my throat and lungs sieze,'' he says, gripping hischest to describe the sensation. The brief exposure to automobile exhaust had taken its toll.

``I immediately asked the driver to take me to my family doctor in Chembur,'' he says. He was driven to his doctor in a state of near-collapse and breathlessness. He collapsed soon after and was rushed to Dr Sandip Rane's hospital nearby, where he was immediately put on a respirator to assist his breathing.

``He had already turned blue when he reached us, and if we had waited for drugs to work, we would've lost him,'' says Dr Rane. Chemburkur spent nearly 12 hours hooked onto the machine, a situation Dr Rane says happens only with patients in an advanced stage. He regained consciousness in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) only on Sunday and was diagnosed as having suffered from the onset of a severe asthma attack due to exposure to automobile exhaust, an attack so sudden that it had even the doctors shocked. ``Exposure to automobile exhaust can aggravate an underlying problem, especially for people sensitive to dustand fumes,'' says Dr Rane, a cardiologist, who can't remember having seen such a condition before. Diesel exhaust was even more dangerous than petrol exhaust since it contained suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sulphur dioxide, he said.

An estimated 90 per cent of Mumbai's population lives in areas where air pollution continues to exceed standards laid down by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Vehicular pollution is responsible for over 67 per cent of air pollution in Mumbai. Chronic bronchitis affects nearly two lakh children in the city every year.

Chemburkar suffered from asthma over a decade ago and was allergic to dust and sprays, after which his doctor recommended that he travel in an air-conditioned car.

He goes back to work next Monday in his air-conditioned car, carrying besides his briefcase, one other accessory which the doctor has now recommended. A gas mask.