<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>After May Day holiday yesterday, Dhaka’s air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 175 at 9:20 am today, making it the most polluted in the world on the list.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indonesia’s Jakarta and Myanmar’s Yangon occupied the second and third spots on the list, with AQI scores of 173 and 140, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 101 and 150 is considered ‘unhealthy’, particularly for sensitive groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be ‘poor’, while a reading of 301+ is considered ‘hazardous’, posing serious health risks to residents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants — Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing a heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>