City Desk :
Dhaka topped the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality with an AQI score of 239 at 8:24am on Friday.
The air was very unhealthy, according to the Air Quality Index, reports UNB.
An AQI value between 151 and 200 is considered unhealthy, 201-300 is very unhealthy and 301+ is considered hazardous, posing severe health risks to residents.
Pakistan’s Lahore, India’s Delhi and Kolkata and Iraq’s Baghdad occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth spots on the list, with AQI scores of 223, 219, 199 and 187, respectively.
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.
Per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, mainly due to increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.
