A report published by Switzerland’s IQAir has revealed that India is home to 39 of the world’s 50 most polluted cities.
A new report on global air quality illustrates an increasing disparity between residents of richer cities compared to those in the developing and least developed nations over the past year.
The report was published by Switzerland’s IQAir, an air quality technology company specializing in protection against airborne pollutants, developing air quality monitoring, and air cleaning products. The annual survey used 30,000 ground level sensors in more than 7,000 cities in over 130 countries around the world. The researchers measured the concentration of fine particulate matter with diameters of up to 2.5 microns, known as PM2.5, which is considered to be one of the most hazardous pollutants as it may be able to enter the bloodstream. To compile the rankings in the report, the data was averaged over the year and weighted by country or city population.
India’s New Delhi and Iraq’s Baghdad were among the top three most-polluted capital cities, where pollutants were considered to be around 18 times higher than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations. N’Djamena, the capital of the landlocked African nation of Chad and one of the poorest countries in the world, was the most polluted, taking the dubious distinction over New Delhi, which had held it for many years prior. The report attributed massive dust storms from the Sahara Desert as the primary cause for the surge in PM2.5 concentrations in the city.
A report released by IQAir has revealed that the most polluted city in India is not Delhi but Biwadi in Rajasthan.
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