Lahore keeps on most polluted with 609 air quality reading

LAHORE: Lahore’s air continues to be most polluted and unhygienic as the city remains most polluted in the world according to the air-quality index (AQI), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The air quality reading recorded 609 at the Index. Indian capital city Delhi remains second in the worst air quality in the world with 408 AQI reading.

In the country, Multan has been second with bad air quality, Peshawar 3rd, Haripur fourth, Islamabad 5th, Rawalpindi 6th and Karachi ranked seven.

“Polluted eastern winds with four KM per hour speed, blowing from India, have direction towards Lahore,” secretary environment protection agency, Jahangir Anwar, has said.

“This polluted air has added to smog in Lahore and given extraordinary boost to the AQI reading,” Anwar said.

He appealed to the farmers to avoid burning remainder of crops.

He also advised citizens to wear masks and observe precautions, shutdown doors and windows of their homes.

Talking to AFP earlier, senior environmental protection official said, “We have never reached a level of 1,000.”

For days, Lahore has been enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.

Air pollution in Lahore soared on Saturday more than 80 times over the level deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO), AFP said in a report.

The level of deadly PM2.5 pollutants — fine particulate matter in the air that causes the most damage to health — peaked at 1,067, before dropping to around 300 in the morning, with anything above 10 considered unhealthy by the WHO.