Staff Reporter :
City people should have to wear masks if the air pollution in Dhaka reaches ‘hazardous’ level.
The Department of Environment (DoE) on Tuesday issued a statement regarding the city’s air quality and advised the city dwellers to wear mask.
Apart from it, sick people, children and elderly people have been advised not to go out of the house unnecessarily, said a DoE press release.
In a message titled ‘Air Pollution Health Protection Advice’, the DoE said if the AQI score in Dhaka exceeds 300, people are advised to wear masks when they go out.
The alert would be withdrawn if the AQI score falls below 300, it said.
Besides, monitoring data of 16 Continuous Air Quality Monitoring System in other divisional and industrial cities of the country, including Dhaka, is being disseminated regularly on the website of the Department of Environment (DoE) through real time automation.
According to air quality chart, when the Air Quality Index value for particle pollution is in between 101 and 150, is considered to be ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’, between 150 and 200 is ‘unhealthy’, between 201 and 300 is said to be ‘very unhealthy’, while a reading of 301 and above is considered to be’hazardous’, posing serious health risks to residents.
Considering the level of air pollution, information regarding air pollution and health risk are being disseminated regularly on the website of the DoE.
The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
The AQI in Bangladesh is based on five pollutants – particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
