Dhaka’s air quality was rated as “good” on Saturday morning, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 37. At 9am, Dhaka ranked 87th on the global list of cities with the worst air quality, well behind cities like Kinshasa, Jakarta, and Hanoi, which topped the list with AQI scores of 176, 157, and 144, respectively.
The AQI is a tool used to report daily air quality, indicating how clean or polluted the air is and the potential health risks. In Bangladesh, the AQI considers five key pollutants: Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and Ozone.
Despite Dhaka’s long-standing battle with air pollution, which typically worsens in winter and improves during the monsoon, this improvement is a positive sign. Air pollution remains one of the leading global risk factors for death and disability, contributing to conditions such as heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes around seven million deaths annually worldwide.
