<p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka's air quality continued to be in the 'good' category on Tuesday morning.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">With an air quality index (AQI) score of 29, the metropolis ranked 70th in the list of world cities with the worst air quality at 10 am.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Pakistan's Karachi and Lahore and North Macedonia’s Skopje occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 214, 168, and 144, respectively.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">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.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">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.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">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.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants – Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">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.</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 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</span><br></p><p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">bnbd24/kh</span><br></p>