- The World Health Organization (WHO) has pegged air quality in most cities worldwide below its guidelines for safe levels, but India appears among the worst.
- According to the UN agency’s latest pollution data, Delhi (not Beijing) tops the list of most polluted cities.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Other cities with high pollution levels are in Pakistan and Bangladesh while those with the lowest levels of pollution are in Canada, the US, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.
- India is in the group of countries that has the highest particulate matter (PM) levels. Its cities have the highest levels of PM10 and PM2.5 (particles with diameter of 10 microns and 2.5 microns) when compared to other cities
- Among the world’s 20 most polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India.
- Of the 13, three are in Punjab: Amritsar (no. 14), Ludhiana (no. 15) and Khanna (no. 20). {Ludhiana is an industrial hub, Khanna is Asia’s biggest grain market}
- Last year, the Global Burden of Disease study pinned outdoor air pollution as the fifth largest killer in India after high blood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking, and poor nutrition. About 6.2 lakh early deaths occurred in India from air pollution-related diseases in 2010. A whopping 18 million years of healthy lives are lost due to illness burden that enhances the economic cost of pollution. Half of these deaths have been caused by ischemic heart disease triggered by exposure to air pollution and the rest due to stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory tract infection and lung cancer
