<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka's air quality continues to be in the 'moderate' zone, all thanks to intermittent monsoon showers.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>With an air quality index (AQI) score of 84 at 09:00am, the densely populated metropolis ranked 12th in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.</div><div><br></div><div>The United Arab Emirates Dubai, Peru’s Lima and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 310, 155 and 151, respectively.</div><div><br></div><div>An AQI between 50 and 100 is considered ‘moderate’ with an acceptable air quality. However, there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.</div><div><br></div><div>On the other hand, an AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups.</div><div><br></div><div>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><br></div><div>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><br></div><div>In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.</div><div><br></div><div>Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.</div><div><br></div><div>With the advent of winter, the city’s air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction work, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>As per 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</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>