Report: South, Central Asians Breathing Most Polluted Air
2022-03-23
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1A new study has found that people living in South and Central Asia experience some of the highest levels of air pollution in the world.
2The air in these areas has the highest amounts of the most kind of air pollution.
3PM2.5 is atmospheric particulate matter that is 2.5 microns in diameter or less.
4A micron is one millionth of a meter.
5PM2.5 is so small that it can enter human lungs and the blood.
6The Switzerland-based company IQAir released its latest study on Tuesday.
7The company operates an air quality information system.
8The yearly IQAir reports began in 2017.
9Glory Dolphin Hammes is chief of IQAir North America.
10She told VOA: "PM2.5 actually kills more people than any other air quality pollutant."
11Based on data from IQAir's worldwide network, Bangladesh is the country with the highest levels of PM2.5 air pollution.
12Chad, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India are also among the five nations with the lowest air quality.
13IQAir found that New Delhi, India, is the capital city with the most PM2.5 pollution.
14Dhaka, Bangladesh; N'Djamena, Chad; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Muscat, Oman, are the other capital cities rated as having extremely polluted air.
15People seeking the world's cleanest air will find it in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.
16The territory's main city, Noumea, is at the top of IQAir's clean air ranking.
17Other places where the air is very clean include the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
18Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, also has very little air pollution.
19Some parts of the developing world lack enough monitoring, Dolphin Hammes said.
20Those areas include parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America.
21Developed countries usually have a greater number of air quality monitors than developing countries and areas.
22Monitoring is at a higher level than in past years in some countries, she said.
23With that additional monitoring, Dolphin Hammes noted, "there are two countries (Chad and Tajikistan) that are among the most polluted countries that weren't on our report last year."
24In 2021, air pollution levels increased from those of a year earlier: the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
25In 2020, the world saw a decrease in air pollution because of less ground and air transportation.
26Another reason for the rise in air pollution last year was an increase in wildfires, Dolphin Hammes said.
27Last year, the World Health Organization cut the recommended yearly PM2.5 limit by half - from 10 micrograms per cubic meter to five micrograms per cubic meter.
28The WHO said the reduction would prevent millions of deaths worldwide.
29Scientists supported the new recommendations.
30But they worry that some countries would have trouble reaching them.
31Much of the world was already failing to meet the 10-microgram limit, Reuters news agency reported.
32IQAir's yearly reports are based on PM2.5 measurements from what is now a total of 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories.
33The worldwide information comes from "tens of thousands of regulatory and low-cost air quality monitoring stations," the company said.
34The stations are operated by governments, nonprofit organizations, research centers and citizen scientists.
35I'm Steve Herman.