Every winter, large parts of northern India go through the same few weeks. The sky turns flat and white, the AQI numbers start appearing in every news bulletin, and a particular kind of complaint spreads through offices and classrooms: a scratchy throat that won't settle, a dry cough that lingers for weeks, a blocked nose, and a headache that sits behind the eyes by evening.
Most people treat it as a cold that won't go away. Often it isn't a cold at all.
Here's what polluted air actually does to your nose and throat, how to tell an irritant cough from an infection, and which of the many things people try are genuinely worth the effort.
What bad air does to the nose and throat
Your nose is not a passive opening. It is the body's first air filter — it warms and humidifies every breath, and its lining traps dust and particles in a layer of mucus that tiny hair-like structures, called cilia, sweep steadily backwards to be swallowed and dealt with. That system, mucociliary clearance, runs all day without you noticing.
Polluted air loads it heavily. The particles that matter most are the fine ones — PM2.5, small enough to travel deep into the airway — along with the gases and smoke that come with them. Two things follow:
- The lining gets irritated and inflamed. It swells, produces more mucus, and you feel it as congestion, a runny nose, sneezing and post-nasal drip at the back of the throat.
- The lining dries out. Dry, dusty, smoky air pulls moisture from the nose and throat. A dry lining clears particles less efficiently, which is exactly the wrong direction, and a dry throat is a sore throat waiting to happen.
The throat takes the second hit. What isn't caught in the nose passes over the throat lining, which has no filter of its own, and reacts by becoming raw, scratchy and cough-prone. This is why the classic pollution complaint is a pair — a blocked or running nose and a throat that hurts — rather than one or the other.
Winter makes it worse for a reason that has nothing to do with pollution itself. Cold air holds less moisture, so the season is drying regardless, and in many Indian cities the air quality also dips sharply just as cold-and-cough viruses are circulating hardest. The two problems arrive together and feel identical.
Is it a pollution cough or a cold?
This is worth getting right, because it changes what you should do.
An infection — a cold, flu or throat infection — tends to arrive over a day or two, often with a fever, body aches, or that heavy, unwell feeling, and it follows an arc: it builds, peaks, and then settles within a week or so. It's also catching; other people around you get it.
A pollution cough behaves differently:
- It's an irritant response, not an infection. No fever, no body aches, no real feeling of illness — just a raw throat and a dry, hacking cough.
- It tracks the air, not the calendar. It's worse on high-AQI days, worse after a long commute or an evening walk, and often noticeably better if you spend a few days somewhere with cleaner air.
- It doesn't resolve in the usual week. It grinds on for as long as the exposure does, which is why people describe a cough that "lasted all winter".
- It affects several people in a household at once without spreading between them in the way an infection does.
Why the distinction matters: an irritant cough is not something an antibiotic can help with, and antibiotics do nothing for a viral cold either. Reaching for one — a common instinct when a cough drags on for weeks — treats neither problem and isn't harmless. If your cough is dry and persistent, our guide to dry cough remedies covers what does help; if there's a fever and you genuinely feel unwell, treat it as a cold or cough instead.
What actually helps
1. Reduce the exposure first
Nothing you take, drink or spray outranks breathing less of it. The unglamorous measures are the effective ones:
- Time your outdoor activity. Pollution is typically at its worst in the early morning and late evening, when cooler air traps particles near the ground. An afternoon walk is usually a better bet than a 6 a.m. one during smog season — the opposite of most people's habit.
- Move exercise indoors on bad days. Hard exercise means breathing far more air, more deeply, and largely through the mouth — which bypasses the nose's filter entirely. A high-AQI morning is the wrong day for a long outdoor run.
- Keep windows shut when the outdoor air is worse than the indoor air, and ventilate when it improves.
2. Be realistic about masks
A mask helps, but only the right one. N95 or N99 respirators filter roughly 90% or more of fine particles and are the ones designed for this. A cloth mask does very little against PM2.5. A surgical mask sits in between — better than nothing, and fit-testing in India has found it can meaningfully reduce exposure, but it isn't sealed to the face and shouldn't be mistaken for a respirator.
The fit matters as much as the rating. A well-rated mask with gaps at the nose or cheeks leaks around the filter.
3. Rinse the nose — don't just steam it
If you clean one thing after a day in bad air, make it your nose.
This is where the evidence is genuinely encouraging. Reviews of saline nasal sprays and rinses describe them as a way of clearing mucus and trapped particulate matter from the nasal passage and supporting normal mucociliary function — and the literature discusses this under the heading of nasal hygiene, as a daily habit rather than a treatment. It is inexpensive, well tolerated, and the reviewed studies report no serious adverse events. A rinse or spray at the end of the day, after the commute, is the single most sensible habit in this whole list.
A note on steam, because it's the reflex answer. Steam is genuinely soothing: it adds moisture to a dried-out nose and throat, loosens thickened mucus, and makes you more comfortable. That's worth having. But it's worth being precise about what it does not do — steam does not wash particles out of your airway. It's comfort and moisture, not clearance. Use it for how it makes you feel, and rinse for the cleaning.
4. Keep the throat from drying out
A dry throat is the one that hurts. Drink more water than feels necessary in dry weather. Warm drinks help — the traditional Indian answer of ginger, tulsi or mulethi in hot water is a reasonable one, and honey genuinely coats and soothes an irritated throat. Our sore throat remedies guide covers the rest. (Honey shouldn't be given to babies under one year old.)
5. Sort out the air you sleep in
You spend a third of your day in one room, which makes it the cheapest air to improve. A HEPA air purifier in the bedroom does more for your total exposure than one in a room you pass through. If the air is dry as well as dirty, a humidifier helps the lining stay comfortable — keep it clean, since a dirty one becomes its own problem.
And if a blocked nose is pushing you into mouth-breathing overnight, you lose the filter for eight hours at a stretch. Clearing the nose before bed is worth the two minutes.
The traditional answer, and where it fits
Ask how to look after the nose in India and you'll often be told to put a little oil in each nostril — the practice of nasya, usually with Anu Thailam or, in many households, plain mustard or coconut oil. It's an old and well-regarded ritual, and there's a sound instinct behind it: it addresses the nose directly, and it's a daily habit rather than a rescue remedy, which is more than most modern advice manages.
Two honest caveats. A film of oil is not a filter — it doesn't stop fine particles reaching the airway, and it shouldn't be treated as protection from polluted air. And nasya is a method, not just a substance: done properly it involves lying back with the head tilted, and it's worth reading up on the technique and precautions rather than improvising. We've covered that in full in our guide to Anu Thailam's uses and benefits.
Nasal hygiene when the air is bad
The thread running through everything above is that the nose and throat do a job every single day in poor air, and mostly get attention only once they hurt.
That's the case for daily respiratory hygiene — treating the nose and throat like your hands or your teeth, with a small routine you keep up through the season rather than a scramble once the cough has set in. During smog season the routine is simple enough to state in a line: reduce what you breathe in, clean the nose at the end of the day, keep the throat moist, and improve the air where you sleep.
Where a daily plant-based spray fits in
Alongside those habits, some people like a gentle daily nose-and-throat step through the season — such as ErasaVir's plant-based nasal spray.
- Plant-derived safflower (a source of linoleic acid) with eucalyptus, alcohol-free, AYUSH certified.
- Designed for daily use, which is the relevant part here — the point of a hygiene habit is that it's routine, not occasional.
- Clinically studied: in a randomised controlled study, ErasaVir eased cold, cough and sore-throat symptoms as well as a conventional treatment regimen — one that included antibiotics, an antihistamine and paracetamol — with no adverse events reported.
Being straight about what it is and isn't. That study measured cold, cough and throat symptoms. It did not measure anything to do with air pollution or particulate exposure, so we make no claim there. ErasaVir is not a filter and not protection from polluted air — nothing sprayed into the nose can be. It doesn't act on your chest or lungs, and it won't remove pollutants you've already breathed. The saline-rinse research described above is exactly that: research on saline irrigation, and we're not claiming it for our own formulation. The only things that reduce your exposure are breathing less of it and filtering it — a mask, a purifier, a closed window. A daily spray sits alongside that as comfort and upkeep for a nose and throat working hard, and if the irritation tips over into an actual cold or sore throat, that's the situation the study above looked at.
If you want to know what to look for in this category generally, our guide to choosing a natural nasal spray goes through it.
When to see a doctor
Bad air is a nuisance for most people and a genuine medical risk for some. See a doctor if:
- You have wheezing, breathlessness, or tightness in the chest — particularly if it's new. This is the important one, and it should not be managed at home.
- You have asthma or COPD and your symptoms are worsening, or you're needing your inhaler more often. Speak to your doctor about a plan before the season, not during it.
- The cough brings up blood, or comes with a high or persistent fever.
- A cough or hoarseness lasts more than three weeks without clearing.
- It's a young child who is breathing fast or noisily, or an older adult or someone with heart disease whose breathing has changed.
Children, older adults, pregnant women and people with existing heart or lung conditions are affected more than the general population, and are the ones for whom reducing exposure matters most.
Air pollution and your throat: frequently asked questions
Can air pollution cause a sore throat?
Yes. Fine particles and gases irritate the throat lining directly, and the dry air that usually accompanies bad-air season adds to it. It typically comes without fever or body aches, which is the main clue that it isn't an infection.
How long does a pollution cough last?
As long as the exposure does. Unlike a viral cough, which settles within a week or two, an irritant cough can persist for weeks. If it lasts beyond three weeks, get it looked at rather than waiting for the air to improve.
Does steam inhalation remove pollution from the lungs?
No. Steam adds moisture and eases irritation, which is genuinely useful for comfort, but it doesn't wash particles out of your airway and nothing you inhale at home "cleans" the lungs. Reducing exposure is what reduces exposure.
Do "detox" teas or supplements clear pollution from the body?
There's no good evidence for that. Eating well is worth doing on its own merits; treating a drink as a counterweight to bad air isn't a strategy.
Is a saline rinse safe to use every day?
Reviews of saline nasal sprays and rinses report them as well tolerated with no serious adverse events, and daily use is common practice. Use clean, appropriately prepared water — never plain tap water straight from the tap — and follow the product's instructions.
Should children wear masks during smog season?
Adult N95 masks generally don't fit children well, and a poorly fitting mask does little. For children, reducing outdoor exposure on high-AQI days and improving indoor air is usually the more practical approach — and worth discussing with a paediatrician if your child has asthma.
The bottom line
A scratchy throat and a cough that lasts all winter aren't always an infection you're failing to shake off. In a bad-air season they're often an irritant problem, and that changes the response: no antibiotic will touch it, and the things that genuinely help are unfashionably practical.
Breathe less of it — time your outdoor hours, wear a mask that actually filters, and improve the air in the room you sleep in. Clean the nose at the end of the day, and keep the throat moist. Treat it as a routine you run through the season rather than a rescue you attempt once the cough has settled in.
And if there's wheezing, breathlessness or chest tightness — or a cough past three weeks — that's the point to stop self-managing and see a doctor.
👉 Explore ErasaVir's plant-based nasal spray — AYUSH certified, alcohol-free, made for a daily nose-and-throat routine.
This article is for general wellness information and isn't a substitute for medical advice.
