Delhi has most polluted air in the world: WHO report

[Edevelop]

NEW DELHI- Indian capital Delhi, has the most polluted air in the world, local media reported today.
The concentration of PM2.5 (fine, respirable particles) is the highest in Delhi at 153 micrograms per cubic meter (g/m), when the World Health Organization (WHO) standard is just about 10g/m, Times of India newspaper quoted a WHO report on 1,600 cities and 91 countries released as saying.
The fine, particulate pollution which is considered most dangerous for health is way higher in Delhi compared with many other crowded Asian cities, including Beijing which has a PM2.5 level of 56g/m, Karachi (117g/m) and Shanghai (36g/m), said the report. The concentration of PM10 (coarse particles) in Delhi is about 286g/m, more than 14 times higher than the WHO annual mean standard of 20. Peshawar (540g/m) and Rawalpindi (448g/m) in Pakistan fare worse on this parameter. Indian cities with a very high PM10 level include Gwalior, Raipur and Lucknow.
This is not the first time Delhi has earned the dubious distinction of having extremely polluted air. In January, Yale University's Environmental Performance Index 2014 had ranked India among the bottom five in a list of 178 countries for various parameters, including air pollution, according to the newspaper.

Delhi has most polluted air in the world: WHO report

 

[Skull and Bones]

Yup, I got sick within 3 months because of dust allergy.

 

[Kompromat]

And i thought it was Beijing.

 

[cloud_9]

NEW DELHI- Indian capital Delhi, has the most polluted air in the world, local media reported today.
The concentration of PM2.5 (fine, respirable particles) is the highest in Delhi at 153 micrograms per cubic meter (g/m), when the World Health Organization (WHO) standard is just about 10g/m, Times of India newspaper quoted a WHO report on 1,600 cities and 91 countries released as saying.
The fine, particulate pollution which is considered most dangerous for health is way higher in Delhi compared with many other crowded Asian cities, including Beijing which has a PM2.5 level of 56g/m, Karachi (117g/m) and Shanghai (36g/m), said the report. The concentration of PM10 (coarse particles) in Delhi is about 286g/m, more than 14 times higher than the WHO annual mean standard of 20. Peshawar (540g/m) and Rawalpindi (448g/m) in Pakistan fare worse on this parameter. Indian cities with a very high PM10 level include Gwalior, Raipur and Lucknow.
This is not the first time Delhi has earned the dubious distinction of having extremely polluted air. In January, Yale University's Environmental Performance Index 2014 had ranked India among the bottom five in a list of 178 countries for various parameters, including air pollution, according to the newspaper.

Delhi has most polluted air in the world: WHO report

g/m instead of ug/m3
Technical literacy fail

WHO should setup their own monitoring systems because I wouldn't believe numbers given by the government.

Secondly data from Delhi is from 2013 and Mumbai from 2012 and the rest are mix of 2010,2011 and 2012.So comparing all this data doesn't make sense.

 

[dray]

New Delhi has dirtiest air, Chinese data foggy - WHO| Reuters

New Delhi has dirtiest air, Chinese data foggy - WHO
GENEVA Wed May 7, 2014 8:19pm IST

(Reuters) - An effort by the World Health Organization to measure pollution in cities around the world has found New Delhi admits to having the dirtiest air, while Beijing's measurements, like its skies, are far from clear.

The study of 1,600 cities found air pollution had worsened since a smaller survey in 2011, especially in poorer countries, putting city-dwellers at higher risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Air pollution killed about 7 million people in 2012, making it the world's single biggest environmental health risk, the WHO, a United Nations agency, said last month.

Thirteen of the dirtiest 20 cities were Indian, with New Delhi, Patna, Gwalior and Raipur in the top four spots. New Delhi had an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre.

Beijing, notorious for the smog that has prompted some Anglophone residents to dub it "Greyjing", was in 77th place with a PM2.5 reading of 56, little over one-third of Delhi's pollution level.

WHO experts said the Chinese data was from 2010, the most recent year made available to them by China. But Beijing's city government began publishing hourly PM2.5 data in January 2012.

A year after it started publishing data, Beijing's air quality hit the "worst on record" according to Greenpeace, with a PM2.5 reading as high as 900 on one occasion.

Beijing's government said last month that PM2.5 concentrations stood at a daily average of 89.5 micrograms per cubic metre in 2013, 156 percent higher than national standards. Such a reading would put Beijing 17th in the WHO database. The WHO says there is no safe level for PM2.5 pollution.

At the cleaner end of the table, 32 cities reported a PM2.5 reading of less than 5. Three-quarters of those were Canadian, including Vancouver, one was Hafnarfjordur in Iceland and the other seven were American.

WHO experts insisted the survey was not intended to name and shame the dirtiest cities, since the cities involved were volunteering the information to try to help themselves clean up.

Maria Neira, WHO Director for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, said the aim was to "challenge" cities and thought the survey would help them to become more open about their dirty air, which is often caused by burning coal, smokestack industries and heavy traffic.

She rejected any suggestion that China might be cheating and said it was becoming much more sophisticated about collecting air pollution data, with a new push to clean up the big cities.

"We are very much discussing with China putting on the table the issue of air pollution. Our director general (Margaret Chan) was recently there and she declared that China was one of the countries with major problems with air pollution. We will continue discussions on that to make sure that relevant measures are in place to reduce air pollution."

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Andrew Roche)

 

[third eye]

Too many vehicles, too many factories, too lax administration, too many state boundaries within the NCR & laws + enforcement agencies.

No enforcement, no monitoring.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

New Delhi has dirtiest air, Chinese data foggy - WHO
GENEVA Wed May 7, 2014 8:19pm IST

(Reuters) - An effort by the World Health Organization to measure pollution in cities around the world has found New Delhi admits to having the dirtiest air, while Beijing's measurements, like its skies, are far from clear.

Like I said, how can we stop the American embassy in Beijing from taking air quality readings in their own embassy territory? Which they do regularly.

The strange thing is that India has the most toxic air in the world by FAR, even though India has failed to industrialize.

India has the world's most toxic air: Study - The Hindu

It is official: India has the world's most toxic air.

In a study by Yale and Columbia Universities, India holds the very last rank among 132 nations in terms of air quality with regard to its effect on human health.

When India finally gets around to the industrialization stage, expect that toxic air (already number one in the world) to increase by multiple times.

And you might as well industrialize, since you already have the world's most toxic air without it. Quite a surprising feat, failing to industrialize while getting all the negatives associated with it anyway.

 

[farhan_9909]

Capital should be like Islamabad

 

[he-man]

air is really fucked up in delhi,,,no kidding

Like I said, how can we stop the American embassy in Beijing from taking air quality readings in their own embassy territory? Which they do regularly.

The strange thing is that India has the most toxic air in the world by FAR, even though India has failed to industrialize.

India has the world's most toxic air: Study - The Hindu



When India finally gets around to the industrialization stage, expect that toxic air (already number one in the world) to increase by multiple times.

And you might as well industrialize, since you already have the world's most toxic air without it. Quite a surprising feat, failing to industrialize while getting all the negatives associated with it anyway.

times don't remain static dude,,,,,its our turn now
u people are trying to increase the domestic consumption and our priority will be industry and effects will be visible in 5-6 years

 

[Pakistanisage]

How does Islamabad rate in terms of Air Pollution ?

 

[Informant]

How does Islamabad rate in terms of Air Pollution ?

Isloo is very very clean.

Karachi is fucked and so is Lahore ( not compared to Khi but its getting there ).

 

[Indischer]

No surprises here. I expected Kolkata to be at the top though. Perhaps Delhi's smog is the clincher.

 

[cirr]

And i thought it was Beijing.

View attachment 27869

Beijing is not that bad considering that it is very close to the gobi desert（sandstorms and all that）and it has millions of autos choking the city's main arteries on a daily basis。In addition，Beijing suffers from the need for（mostly coal-fired）central heating during the bitterly cold winter season，while not forgetting that it was also a major industrial centre not so long ago。

PS After 30 years of rapid growth and construction on an enormous scale，Beijing is still a major building site。

 

[dray]

No surprises here. I expected Kolkata to be at the top though. Perhaps Delhi's smog is the clincher.

I read somewhere that Delhi has more cars than the other three metros, Mumbai, Kolkata, & Chennai combined!! Not sure if this is correct though.

 

[he-man]

I read somewhere that Delhi has more cars than the other three metros, Mumbai, Kolkata, & Chennai combined!! Not sure if this is correct though.

u have to be on a delhi road to see what delhi really is.

I won't be surprised if its true indeed