Rawalpindi, Karachi and Peshawar in top ten most polluted cities in world - WHO

[mr42O]

Last week, the World Health Organization released new data on air pollution in 1,600 cities worldwide.

The most striking conclusion? China gets way more attention for its air pollution, but India has a much bigger problem on its hands.

If you live in India, your lungs are taking in dangerous levels of air pollution

Put simply, if you live in a large Indian city, your lungs are taking in dangerous levels of air pollution on a daily basis.

Drawing on data collected between 2008 and 2013, the report listed the cities by the average amount of particulate matter in the air over the course of a year. When these tiny particles — smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — are inhaled, they can settle into the lungs, increasing the long-term risk for lung cancer (each year, it's estimated that they cause 800,000 deaths worldwide).

In the new report, six of the top ten most polluted cities were in India, with Delhi leading the way. The figures show the average number of micrograms of these particles per cubic meter of air over the course of a year (for reference, the WHO considers 25 to be a safe limit):

Apart from the six Indian cities (shown in yellow), three more cities on this list are in nearby Pakistan (shown in blue), with Iran's Khoramabad the only city outside of South Asia in the top 10.

Here's a world map, with each country colored according to its most polluted city, according to the report:

The worst American city in the report was Fresno, California, followed by a few other cities in California. This fits with the findings of a recent American Lung Association report that showed California, as a whole, features the country's worst air pollution.

A variety of factors contribute to air pollution, but it's mainly driven by the burning of gasoline, diesel, and coal for transportation and energy, along with other large-scale manufacturing processes.

This pollution is mainly caused by the burning of gasoline, diesel, and coal

So in response to China's high pollution levels, authorities recently introduced a plan tolimit coal burning and vehicle use. But the report shows that even before this initiative, China's pollution paled in comparison to India's.

Beijing's data, for instance, came from 2010, and showed that the city averaged a count of 56 PM 2.5 over the course of a year. It's certainly not a great count, but for comparison, 25 Indian cities had higher levels of pollution during the time studied.

Correction: this story previously said that the report measured the number of particulates per cubic meter, not the number of micrograms of particulates per cubic meter.

 

[Pakistanisage]

Disturbing Trend.....

 

[Dandpatta]

^^^ Yeah.. and people in India want it to be industrialised to the levels of China. God save the subcontinent if that happens. I once asked a very basic question to one of the 'learned' corporate types. Where will Indians buy their agricultural produce if you want all agri land to become havens of industrialised centers. The quiet eternal pause was an answer to how short sighted our priorities are.

 

[mr42O]

^^^ Yeah.. and people in India want it to be industrialised to the levels of China. God save the subcontinent if that happens. I once asked a very basic question to one of the 'learned' corporate types. Where will Indians buy their agricultural produce if you want all agri land to become havens of industrialised centers. The quiet eternal pause was an answer to how short sighted our priorities are.

They are doing same in Pakistan.... cant understand how dum they can be ?

 

[Jungibaaz]

Much of this could be reduced if there was some sort of authority and regulatory body in these cities.
Too many cars, buses and rickshaws use defective engines that let off too much smoke, and high levels of carbon monoxide.

First step would be to make sure the cars are properly registered.

 

[Dandpatta]

^^^ Bhai jaan , in India, registrations are pretty much very formalised and regulated. However, in India, what lacks is the WILL to tax any family unit that has more than 2 cars. The dangerous trend in India is that the number of cars are increasing by a huge margin without any thought given to common sense. Even a well off couple will have two cars - one for the wife, one for the hubby.

Concepts like car share , curfews, are looked down upon as 3rd world solutions . The filthy rich and the growing middle class with easy access to easy credit is also fueling the boom in avian pollution.

 

[tarrar]

My city is Rawalpindi & this time when I went on my vacation, I was very disturbed by the worsening pollution in Rawalpindi. It was not like that back in 2003, in 2011 I saw things getting worse & this time in 2014 it was worse. I went to Peshawar for the first & dam the city was so heavily polluted.

 

[ryzvonusef]

This, funnily enough, is why the RWP-ISB project is so necessary, environmentally!

Rawalpindi has no functional transport, so we are a hodgepodge of cars, bikes, suzukis, chingchi and rickshaws, all belching fumes

If a functional transit system like Metro was introduced, then people will be inclined to leave the bike/car at home, reducing emissions.

Those 4000 trees that are being removed will be replaced, but the best idea environmentally will be to reduce pollution in the first place.