<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka's air quality continued to be in the 'hazardous' zone this morning, posing serious health risks to residents of the densely populated capital of Bangladesh.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With an air quality index (AQI) score of 372 at 8:50 am today (January 26, 2023), Dhaka ranked first in the list of cities with the worst air.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 151 and 200 is said to be ‘unhealthy’ while 201 and 300 is considered ‘very unhealthy’, and 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Read more: Govt may provide loans for producing eco-friendly bricks: Environment Minister</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Uzbekistan’s Tashkent and Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar occupied the second and third spots in the list, with AQI scores of 288 and 219, respectively.</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>