Photo: Collected
Air pollution is increasing day by day in various cities of the world because of climate change and various development works. In this situation, Lahore of Pakistan has risen to the top of the list of polluted cities with a score of 187, which is regarded as an ‘unhealthy’ level.
On the other hand, Dhaka is at number 19 on the list with a score of 87 on Friday, a holiday. This air quality is considered ‘moderate or tolerable’ for city dwellers.
This information was learnt on Friday (25 September) from the Air Quality Index of IQAir, a Switzerland-based air quality monitoring organisation.
According to the index, Lahore is at the top with a score of 187. Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is in second place with a score of 181, Kuching of Malaysia is third with a score of 165, Doha of Qatar is fourth with a score of 160, and the score of Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, which is in fifth place, is also 160.
By IQAir’s standards, air quality is regarded as ‘very good’ if the score is from zero to 50, ‘moderate or tolerable’ if 51 to 100, ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ if 101 to 150 and ‘unhealthy’ if 151 to 200. A score of 201 to 300 is considered ‘very unhealthy’ and above 301 ‘hazardous’.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is determined on the basis of five components of pollution: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and ozone (O3).
