<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka ranked as the 18th most polluted city in the world this morning (February 13, 2023) as per Air Quality Index (AQI).</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The air in Dhaka was categorized as ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ this morning and the megacity had an AQI score of 123 at 9:33 am.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia’s Krasnoyarsk, Poland’s Krakow and Bosnia Herzegovina’s Sarajevo occupied the first three spots, with AQI scores of 199, 186 and 182, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the AQI remains in between 101 and 150, members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected in this condition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this range, people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children, people with diabetes, and people of lower SES are advised to reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 151 and 200 is considered ‘unhealthy’ while 201-300 is considered ‘very unhealthy’, and 301-400 is 'hazardous', posing severe health risks to residents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs 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 (O3).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoon climate characterized by wide seasonal variations in rainfall, high temperatures and humidity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>