Delhi once again world’s most polluted capital: report

Since 2018, Delhi has been named the most polluted capital city in the world four times.

New Delhi:

Bihar’s Begusarai has emerged as the world’s most polluted metropolitan area, while Delhi has been identified as the capital city with the worst air quality, a new report has revealed.

According to Indian data, in 2023, India’s annual average concentration of PM2.5 was 54.4 micrograms/cubic meter, and its air quality ranked third among 134 countries, second only to Bangladesh (79.9 micrograms/cubic meter) and Pakistan (73.7 micrograms/cubic meter). The 2023 World Air Quality Report released by the Swiss organization IQAir.

In 2022, India’s average PM2.5 concentration was 53.3 micrograms per cubic meter, ranking it as the eighth most polluted country.

Begusarai has become the most polluted metropolitan area in the world, with an average concentration of PM2.5 of 118.9 micrograms per cubic meter. The city doesn’t even appear in the 2022 rankings.

PM2.5 levels in Delhi worsened from 89.1 micrograms per cubic meter in 2022 to 92.7 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023.

Since 2018, the capital has been ranked as the most polluted capital city in the world four times in a row.

An estimated 1.36 billion people in India have PM2.5 concentrations that exceed the annual guideline level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the report said.

Additionally, 1.33 billion people, or 96% of India’s population, have PM2.5 levels that are more than seven times the World Health Organization’s annual PM2.5 guidance. This trend is also reflected in city-level data, with more than 66% of cities across the country reporting average annual concentrations above 35 micrograms per cubic meter.

IQAir said the data used to create this report came from more than 30,000 regulated air quality monitoring stations and low-cost air quality sensors distributed globally, operated by research institutions, government agencies, universities and educational institutions, and not-for-profit non-governmental organizations. organizations, private companies, and citizen scientists.

The 2022 World Air Quality Report contains data from 7,323 locations in 131 countries, regions and territories. By 2023, this number had grown to 7,812 locations in 134 countries, territories and territories.

Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to human health, killing an estimated one in nine people worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes about 7 million premature deaths worldwide every year.

Exposure to PM2.5 air pollution can cause and exacerbate a variety of health conditions, including but not limited to asthma, cancer, stroke, and lung disease.

Exposure to high levels of fine particulate matter can impair children’s cognitive development, cause mental health problems, and complicate existing conditions including diabetes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)