Jan 16, 2020
Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka ranked the worst once again in Air Quality Index (AQI) on Thursday.
The independent live air-quality index monitor, Air Visual, shows Dhaka’s AQI value as 324 around 11:00am.
Bosnia Herzegovina’s Sarajevo followed Dhaka in poor air with an AQI value of 296 while India’s Kolkata and Pakistan’s Lahore stood third and fourth on the worst air city list with AQI values 275 and 266 respectively.
Earlier, Dhaka had topped the list on 17 and 23 November, 26 December, and 6 January.
The AQI is a tool for measuring daily air quality of any city or country. It refers to the degree of pollution or cleanliness of the air. An AQI score between 201 and 300 indicates the air is unhealthy for health while a value over 300 refers the air is highly dangerous with possible serious health complications.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants including Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone (O3).
The environment department has also set national ambient air quality standards for these pollutants. These standards aim to protect against adverse human health impacts.
Dhaka has long been suffering from a number of environmental pollutions including that of air.
