<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The air quality in Bangladesh capital Dhaka continued to remain ‘good’ on Monday morning, as everything opened after a public holiday on Sunday.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With an air quality index score of 33 at 9:00am, Dhaka ranked 52nd in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 0 and 50 is marked as ‘good’ with the air quality considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan’s Karachi, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, and North Macedonia’s Skopje occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 176, 162, and 157, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 50 and 100 is considered ‘moderate’ with an acceptable air quality. Meanwhile, an AQI between 101 and 200 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 to 400 is considered ‘hazardous,’ posing serious health risks to residents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, is used by government agencies to inform people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.</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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the World Health Organization, air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections. UNB&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>