how daily pollution label increases ?
Answers
once again heading into the worst time of year for air pollution, a season where the country’s notoriously poor quality becomes even more toxic.
Soot, dust, ozone, and sulfur oxides are a growing threat for billions of people around the world. The World Health Organization reported this week that 93 percent of all children in the world breathe air with pollution levels that exceed their guidelines.
A whopping nine in 10 people on Earth breathe highly polluted air, and more than 80 percent of urban dwellers have to endure outdoor pollution that exceeds health standards, according to the WHO’s World Global Ambient Air Quality Database.
But even among countries gasping for breath, India stands out for air that is consistently, epically terrible.
In recent years, the first two weeks of November have brought the worst air pollution of the year to #Delhi, #India.
With daily averages already in the "very unhealthy" range, 2018 seems set to repeat the pattern. #AirQuality pic.twitter.com/Irals60HFS
— Robert Rohde (@RARohde) October 31, 2018
Drawing on measurements and calculations as of 2016 from air monitoring stations in 4,300 cities, the WHO reported in March that India’s cities suffer the most.
When you look at the database’s ranking of particulate pollution in cities, 11 of the 12 cities with the highest levels are located in India. Kanpur, India, population 3 million, tops the list with a yearly average of 319 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5, the most hazardous particle commonly measured. (Bamenda, Cameroon, is the one city outside of India in the top 12.)
Cities with the highest small particulate measurements in the world
Country City PM2.5 (µg/m³)
India Kanpur 173
India Faridabad 172
India Varanasi 151
India Gaya 149
India Patna 144
India Delhi 143
India Lucknow 138
Cameroon Bamenda 132
India Agra 131
India Muzaffarpur 120
India Srinagar 113
India Gurgaon 113
World Health Organization
Many different air pollutants can impact health — nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone, among them. But the database classifies air pollution in two ways: by PM2.5, particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, and by PM 10, particles that are 10 microns in diameter. The smaller PM2.5 particles from sources like open flames and diesel exhaust can linger in the air longer and penetrate deeper into the lungs than larger particles, which is why they’re the bigger concern for health officials and a high-priority target for reduction.
Technically, the WHO doesn’t treat its data as a ranking but rather a measurement of where risks are. But it’s clear from the report that India is one of the riskiest countries in the world to breathe, up there with Bangladesh and Georgia. When it comes to comparing PM10 measurements of the world’s largest cities, India’s capital Delhi comes in with an annual average of 292, ahead of Cairo (284), Dhaka (147), Mumbai (104), and Beijing (92), the Washington Post noted.
Frequent unhealthy levels of pollution from sources ranging from vehicles to the burning of coal and wood for cooking, dust storms, or forest fires affect most of the country. India’s hills and mountains also act as basins that trap toxic air over vast swaths of the country, sometimes making the air too dangerous to breathe. Just check out this map of air pollution from October:
A map of particulate air pollution in India on October 31, 2018.
A map of particulate air pollution in India on October 31, 2018. Berkeley Earth
But how did it get so bad? Let’s take a closer look.
Poverty and air pollution go hand in hand
Though you can find unhealthy air in pretty much any country, the worst pollution these days is accumulating in developing countries with growing populations. The highest-ranking city from an OECD country in the PM2.5 list is Hobart, Australia, coming in at 206.
“Air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, in a statement.
Cookstoves, heating fuel, and kerosene lighting are all common sources of pollution in big cities in developing countries. Poor governance is also a major factor in pollution since lax enforcement of standards for car exhausts, crop burning, or dust from construction sites leads to more particulates in the air.
Some countries like China are making progress. Cities in China have moved down in the rankings, and the government is seeking reforms to keep pollution in check as dirty air has become an increasingly volatile public concern.
Governing air pollution has proved to be much trickier in India.