<div style="text-align: justify; "><b>The air quality of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka continued to be in the 'unhealthy' zone this morning.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With an air quality index (AQI) score of 168 at 9:15 am today (February 1, 2023), Dhaka ranked 11th in the list of cities with the worst air.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Kazakhstan's Astana, Pakistan’s Karachi and Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 229, 195 and 190, respectively.</span><br></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 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>