Dhaka: The densely-populated capital city of Bangladesh has ranked 3rd on the list of cities with the worst air quality with an AQI index of 183 at 9 am on Sunday. Dhaka’s air was classified as ‘unhealthy’, according to IQAir, a Swiss free real-time air quality monitoring platform.
According to United News of Bangladesh, Pakistan’s Lahore and India’s Delhi occupied the first and second spots on the list, with AQI scores of 244 and 193 respectively. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is an index for reporting daily air quality, informing people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
When the AQI value for particle pollution is between 101 and 150, air quality is considered ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’. Values between 150 and 200 are ‘unhealthy’, between 201 and 300 are ‘very unhealthy’, and a reading of 301+ is considered ‘hazardous’, posing serious health risks to residents. 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.