A Swiss company that tracks global air quality has named Delhi the world’s most polluted national capital for the sixth year in a row. The World Air Quality Report for 2024, released by IQAir on Tuesday, shows that 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India.
The most polluted city in the world is Byrnihat, located on the border of Assam and Meghalaya, according to the report. IQAir analyzed data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations in 138 countries.
The report focused on levels of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5. This is a very small but dangerous pollutant. PM2.5 comes from burning fossil fuels and can cause health problems like breathing issues, kidney disease, cancer, and heart problems like strokes or Heart attacks.
A Global Problem:
The report shows that in 2024, most people around the world were breathing polluted air.
Only 12 countries, regions, and areas had PM2.5 levels below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe yearly limit of 5 µg/m3.
Most of the countries with clean air were in Latin America, the Caribbean, or the Oceania region.
According to the report, the five most polluted countries were Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Congo, and India. Their yearly average PM2.5 levels were 91.8 µg/m3, 78 µg/m3, 73.7 µg/m3, 58.2 µg/m3, and 50.6 µg/m3, respectively.
The report also shows that most of the world’s air quality did not meet the WHO’s PM2.5 guidelines. The 20 most polluted cities, located in India, Kazakhstan, Chad, Pakistan, and China, had PM2.5 levels more than 10 times higher than the WHO’s recommended limit.
Pollution In India:
In 2024, India’s average PM2.5 level was 50.6 µg/m3, which was 7% lower than in 2023 (54.4 µg/m3).
However, six cities in India were among the top 10 most polluted cities in the world. Byrnihat, the most polluted city, had an average of 128.2 µg/m3. Delhi’s pollution level remained high, with an average of 91.6 µg/m3 in 2024, almost the same as 92.7 µg/m3 in 2023.
The report said northern states in India, especially, experienced very bad pollution in 2024. For example, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh had very poor air quality in January. In November, pollution was extremely high in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.
A major cause of pollution was crop stubble burning, which made up 60% of pollution during peak times. Other big sources of pollution included car emissions, factory waste, and dust from construction sites.
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