For the second day in a row this new year, Dhaka has claimed the undesirable title of the city with the most severe air quality issues globally, recording an AQI score of 256 at 8:45 am. This ‘very unhealthy’ air quality classification poses significant health hazards to the city’s inhabitants, as indicated by the air quality index.
Following Dhaka on the list, India’s metropolitan cities like Kolkata and Delhi, along with Pakistan’s Karachi, trailed with AQI scores of 250, 206, and 196, respectively. The AQI scale categorizes values between 201 and 300 as ‘very unhealthy’, highlighting the critical health implications for residents.
The air quality index serves as a vital tool, offering insights into a city’s daily air cleanliness or pollution levels, along with potential associated health risks. In Bangladesh, the AQI calculation encompasses five key pollutants, including particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone.
Dhaka’s persistent air pollution challenges intensify during winter, often improving marginally during the monsoon season. Alarmingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the global ramifications of air pollution, attributing an estimated seven million annual deaths worldwide to related complications such as stroke, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and more.
