About 90 per cent of the world’s 200 most polluted cities are in China and India
IQAir Group and Greenpeace release the 2019World Air Quality Report. New Delhi is the worst megacity in terms of air pollution, followed by Lahore and Dhaka. High levels of PM2.5 cause up to seven million premature deaths in the world, one million in China alone.
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – About 90 per cent of the 200 cities with the highest level of micro-pollution are located in China and India with most of the others in Pakistan and Indonesia, this according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report, released jointly by IQAir Group and Greenpeace.
Accounting for population, Bangladesh has the worst PM2.5 pollution, followed by Pakistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan. Based on the criterion, China ranks 11th.
Among the world’s megacities of ten million or more people, the most PM2.5-toxic in 2019 was the Indian capital New Delhi, followed by Lahore in Pakistan, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Kolkata in India, Linyi and Tianjin in China, and Jakarta, Indonesia.
Next on the list were Wuhan – epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak – along with Chengdu and Beijing.
The IQAir report is based on data from nearly 5,000 cities worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) attributes most of the seven million premature deaths to air pollution caused by PM2.5 particles.
In China alone, the number of victims exceeds one million, but some unofficial estimates put the figure at two million.
“Air pollution is the world’s leading environmental health threat,” IQAir CEO Frank Hammes said. “Ninety per cent of the global population is breathing unsafe air.”
China saw some improvements in recent years. Its average urban PM2.5 concentration dropped 20 per cent in 2018 and 2019, but last year it still counted 117 of the 200 most polluted cities in the world.
Microscopic flecks are small enough to enter the bloodstream via the respiratory system, leading to asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.
Whilst the link with lung cancer is well established, a recent study showed that most excess deaths from air pollution are caused by heart attacks, strokes and other types of cardiovascular disease.
Small and larger particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and ozone (O3) have likewise been linked to drops in cognitive performance, labour productivity and educational outcomes.
Of cities with more than 1 million people, the least affected by PM2.5 are Adelaide, Helsinki, Stockholm, and San Jose in central California, followed by Perth and Melbourne in Australia, and Calgary in Canada, and New York.
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04/05/2013
