Lahore ranked first among the most polluted cities in the world on the Air Quality Index (AQI), ARY News reported on Monday.
The air quality index reading at Lahore’s Gulbarg was measured at 335, while the AQI reading at the city’s Defense area remained at 271 and in Model Town, hazardous particulate matter was recorded at 231.
In comparison to the previous few days, the city’s average AQI reading has dropped relatively.
It is to be mentioned here that an AQI as high as 151-200 is considered unhealthy, while an AQI reading between 201 and 300 is more harmful, and an AQI rate over 300 is extremely hazardous.
Winter Season
According to experts, the air becomes heavier in the winter as compared to the summer, causing poisonous particles in the atmosphere to move downward and making the atmosphere polluted. As a result, a layer of polluted particles, including large amounts of carbon and smoke, covers a city.
The smoke produced by factories and by burning coal, garbage, oil, or tyres enters the atmosphere, and the impact of it appears at the onset of winter and remains till the season’s end, experts said.
Thus, air pollution reaches extremely dangerous levels in cold weather, severely compromising air quality.
Rainfall
A healthy atmosphere in such a situation is subject to rainfall, which washes off all hazardous particles.
Five Categories Of Pollution
The AQI calculation is based on five categories of pollution: ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.
