Bangladesh is at the top of air pollution, followed closely by Pakistan and India
Although Pakistan was already among the three countries with the highest air pollution in the world, Bangladesh and India have taken the new place.
The data released on Tuesday (March 19) showed that the amount of particulate matter in the air of these three countries is about 15 times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. British news agency Reuters reported this news.
IQAir has published a report titled World Air Quality Report-2023 on air pollution. According to the report, Pakistan has retained the second position among the top three countries in the world in terms of air pollution. Bangladesh and India have moved to the first and third positions respectively, replacing the African countries Chad and Iran.
In 2023, the amount of ‘fine particulate matter’ or PM-2.5 in the air of Bangladesh was 79.9 micrograms per cubic meter. Its amount in the air of Pakistan was 73.7 micrograms. According to the World Health Organization, it should be 5 micrograms in the air. If this PM 2.5 is more in the air, it causes extensive damage to the lungs.
Christie Chester Schroeder, air quality science manager at IQAir, a Swiss-based air quality monitoring agency, said about the cause of the terrible air pollution in these three countries.
The concentration of PM-2.5 in these three countries has skyrocketed due to climatic conditions and geographical location. Another major reason is that pollutants have nowhere else to go.
Schroeder also said that other causes of air pollution are countries’ agricultural systems, industrialization and population density.
In 2022, the position of Bangladesh was the fifth from the last in terms of air pollution in the world and the position of India was the eighth. Air pollution in India has also increased compared to last year, which is 11 times higher than the World Health Organization standard. Capital Delhi is one of the cities with the most polluted air. Here the pollution rate is 92.7 micrograms.
The report was prepared by IQAIR based on data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries and regions. Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand have met the WHO criteria by 2023.
Chad, the top polluting country in 2022, has been dropped from the list due to ‘unavailability of data’. And Iran has withdrawn itself from this list.
