Relying on Swiss IQAir’s information platform, the 2020 World Air Quality Report shows, South and East Asian locations emerge as the most polluted globally. Among them Bangladesh, China, India, and Pakistan share 49 of the 50 of the most polluted cities worldwide, Dhaka as second worst ranking, while wildfires and dust storms linked to increasing global temperatures as part of climate change as well as agricultural practices.
It includes data for 106 countries; up from 98 countries in 2019 and 69 countries in 2018, where PM2.5 data, a real-time measured fine particulate matter that has been reported by ground based monitoring stations both government and non-government agencies.
It says, the microscopic size of PM2.5 micron allows these particles to be absorbed deep into the bloodstream upon inhalation, potentially causing far-reaching health effects like low birth weight, acute respiratory infections, asthma, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease. Besides, air pollution contributes to about 7 million early deaths annually, while burdening the global economy upwards of $2.9 trillion per year.
Read the report here: world-air-quality-report-2020-en
