Air quality index: Lahore remains most polluted city

LAHORE: Lahore continues to remain on top of the list of the most polluted cities in the country after Punjab Environment Protection Department released details of air quality in the province, ARY NEWS reported.

According to details shared by the Punjab Environment Protection Department, the air quality of Lahore’s Raiwind Road remained worst after being recorded at 315, followed by 245 and 218 AQI recorded in National Hockey Stadium and Township sector II respectively.

It further shared that AQI is being recorded at 77 in Faisalabad, 107 in Rahim Yar Khan, and 105 at Rawalpindi.

According to the reports of international media, burning of crop residue and garbage in northern Indian states causes dangerous hike in environmental pollution in the region.

The AQI is calculated on the basis of five categories of pollution: ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.

AQI as high as 151-200 is considered unhealthy, while an AQI rating between 201 to 300 is more harmful and AQI over 300 is termed extremely toxic.

According to experts, an increase in air pollution used to be recorded in the winter. A change in the wind speed, wind direction and sliding minimum temperature increases air pollution.

The air becomes heavier in the winter as compared to summer, causing poisonous particles in the atmosphere to move downwards and making the atmosphere polluted. As a result, a layer of polluted particles, including large amounts of carbon and smoke, covers a city.

The smoke produced by burning crop remnants, factories and burning coal, garbage, oil or tyres enters the atmosphere and the effects of this appear at the onset of winter and remain till the season’s end, experts said.

Thus air pollution reaches to extremely dangerous levels, severely compromising the air quality.