LAHORE: Pakistan’s major cities, Lahore and Karachi, recorded the best air quality for the third consecutive day on Thursday.
According to a report by IQAir, which tracks real-time data on air quality worldwide, Lahore’s air quality index (AQI) peaked at 229 in the unhealthy category at 8am.
It is the best air quality in the city since last month.
Since November 1, the city has mostly remained in the hazardous category —considered extremely harmful and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.
Out of these 34 days, Lahore’s air quality remained in the hazardous category for 21 days mostly ranked as the world’s most polluted city. The city dropped from the top two to five on the global pollution chart for the first time.
Similarly, Karachi ranked third on the global pollution chart this week dropping to fourth for the second consecutive day.
Indian’s city Kolkata ranked as the world’s most polluted city for the first time during this period. According to a report by IQAir, the air quality index (AQI) in Kolkata peaking 360 followed by Dhaka with an AQI of 328.
Ulaanbaatar, the city of Magnolia, ranked third with an AQI of 222 while Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, ranked as the fourth polluted city with an AQI soaring to 207.
Lahore ranked as the fifth most polluted city in the world with AQI 206. Despite huge improvement in air quality, the Lahore concentration of PM2.5 pollutants—fine particulate matter that poses significant health risks—were recorded at 154 micrograms per cubic meter in Lahore, which is over 30.8 times higher than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual air quality guideline value.
World’s most polluted cities list
An AQI below 50 is considered good ‘moderate’ between ’51 and 100′, ‘unhealthy for sensitive group’ at ‘101 and 150’, ‘unhealthy’ at ‘151-200’, very unhealthy at 201-300, 301 and above is ‘hazardous’.
According to this year’s Life Quality Index Institute report, compiled by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, the people of Lahore could have had their lives shortened by 7.5 years due to the poor air they breathe.
To control the smog crisis, the Punjab government has this month closed public places including parks, zoos, playgrounds, joy/play lands, historical places, monuments, and museums in smog-hit districts including Lahore.
Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has described smog as a serious threat and said that it is likely to cause 250,000 premature deaths.
The provincial capital has been the most polluted city in the world for many days.
