"The average person can go up to two months without food, three days without water, but only a few minutes without air. Breathable air is essential to life. Yet a new analysis found that in 2023, only 10 countries and 9 per cent of global cities had air quality that met World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for harmful fine-particle, or PM2.5, pollution.
Some of the places most affected were in West Asia, Africa, and Central and South Asia. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, and Burkina Faso ranked as the five countries with the most polluted air in 2023, weighted by population, according to the report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company that collects air-sensor data around the world. (The report cautions that the picture in sub-Saharan Africa is incomplete, however, since only 24 of 54 countries had sufficient data to be included.)
French Polynesia, Mauritius, and Iceland had the least air pollution. The capital cities with the worst air were New Delhi; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Baghdad, IQAir found. Capitals with the lowest concentrations of PM2.5 were mostly in Oceania, Scandinavia, and the Caribbean, and included Wellington, New Zealand; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Hamilton, Bermuda."
Kendra Pierre-Louis reports for Bloomberg News March 19, 2024.
SEE ALSO:
"Only Seven Countries Meet WHO Air Quality Standard, Research Finds" (Guardian)
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