“Report Reveals Widespread Air Pollution Affecting Global Population”

BENGALURU – Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of cities globally meeting air pollution guidelines, a report Tuesday found.

IQAir, a Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database, studied data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 138 countries. Their analysis revealed that Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India had the most polluted air. Specifically, India was home to six of the nine most polluted cities, with Byrnihat in northeastern India being the most severely affected.

In reality, the extent of air pollution could be much higher since many regions worldwide do not have sufficient monitoring systems in place to provide accurate data. For instance, in Africa, there is only one monitoring station for every 3.7 million people.

To address this concern, efforts are underway to install more air quality monitors. The latest report indicates that this year, data from 8,954 new locations and approximately a thousand new monitors have been included thanks to initiatives aimed at enhancing air pollution monitoring.

But last week, data monitoring for air pollution was dealt a blow when the U.S. State Department announced it would no longer make public its data from its embassies and consulates around the world.

Breathing in polluted air over a long period of time can cause respiratory illness, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, said Fatimah Ahamad, chief scientist and air pollution expert at Malaysia-based Sunway Centre for Planetary Health. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.

Ahamad said much more needs to be done to cut air pollution levels. The WHO had earlier found that 99% of the world’s population lives in places that do not meet recommended air quality levels.

“If you have bad water, no water, you can tell people to wait for half an hour a day, the water will come. But if you have bad air, you cannot tell people to pause breathing,” she said.

Several cities like Beijing, Seoul, South Korea, and Rybnik in Poland have successfully improved their air quality through stricter regulations on pollution from vehicles, power plants and industry. They’ve also promoted cleaner energy and invested in public transportation.

Another notable effort to curb severe air pollution was the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreement on transboundary haze pollution. Even though its had limited success so far, ten countries in the region pledged to work together to monitor and curb pollution from large forest fires, a common occurrence in the region during dry seasons.

Shweta Narayan, a campaign lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said many of the regions witnessing the worst air pollution are also places where planet-heating gases are released extensively through the burning of coal, oil and gas. Slashing planet-warming emissions to slow the heating up of the planet can also improve air quality, she said.

Air pollution and climate crisis “are two sides of the same coin,” she said. ___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123

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