Dhaka ranks worst in Air Quality Index

Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka ranked the worst again in Air Quality Index (AQI) on Sunday.

The independent live air-quality index monitor, Air Visual, shows Dhaka’s AQI value as 356 around 8:40am.

Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek followed Dhaka with an AQI score of 237 while Pakistan's Lahore and Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar stood third and fourth in the list of poor air cities with AQI values 212 and 193 respectively.

Dhaka topped the worst air city list multiple times this month including 9, 14, 18 and 19 February while it topped the list earlier on 17 and 23 November, 26 December and 6, 29, 31 January too. The city has been continuously staying within the five most polluted cities around the world.

The AQI is a tool for measuring daily air quality of any city or country. It refers to the degree of pollution or cleanliness of the air. An AQI score between 201 and 300 indicates the air is unhealthy while a value over 300 refers the air is highly dangerous with possible serious health complications.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants including Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone (O3).

The environment department has also set national ambient air quality standards for these pollutants. These standards aim to protect against adverse human health impacts.

Dhaka has long been suffering from a number of environmental pollutions including that of air.