Lahore ranked sixth most polluted city on Air Quality Index

LAHORE: Amid restricted visibility in the morning owing to foggy conditions in Lahore, the city ranked sixth among top ten most polluted cities of the world on the Air Quality Index (AQI), ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Average air quality index reading of Lahore recorded 198, as Kot Lakhpat area of the Punjab’s capital city was most polluted with air quality reading of 434 on AQI.

Lahore’s FC College Gulbarg area measured 328 reading on the air quality index, while AQI reading in Model Town remained 276 and Johar Town 218, according to the data shared.

It is pertinent to mention here that AQI as high as 151-200 is considered unhealthy, while an AQI reading between 201 to 300 is harmful and AQI rate over 300 mark is extremely hazardous.

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

The smoke produced by factories and by burning coal, garbage, oil or tyres enters the atmosphere and the impact of it appears at the onset of winter and remains till the season’s end, experts said.

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

Healthy atmosphere in such a situation is subject to rainfall, which washes off hazardous particles.

The AQI calculation based on five categories of pollution including ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.