Artificial lungs show pollution peril

NEW DELHI - A pair of artificial lungs put up in the Indian capital to demonstrate the lethal effects of smog have turned a sickly dark brown within 10 days of their installation, underscoring the city's pollution crisis.

New Delhi, the world's most polluted major city, has been covered in a toxic gray haze since the onset of winter last month, with pollution levels several times higher than the World Health Organization's safe limits.

The oversized lungs, put up on Nov 3 on the premises of the Sir Ganga Ram hospital and white at first, had been fitted with high-powered particle-trapping filters to mimic the way a human body functions.