<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Dhaka's air quality slipped back to the 'unhealthy' zone this morning.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With an air quality index (AQI) score of 154 at 8:56 am, the capital city of Bangladesh ranked 7th in the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An AQI between 151 and 200 is considered ‘unhealthy’ while between 201–300 is ‘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;">Thailand’s Chiang Mai, Pakistan’s Lahore and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 330, 175and 165, 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.</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>