Lahore remains on top of poor Air Quality Index

Lahore ranked top of the list of the most polluted cities in the world today having the worst air quality, ARY News reported on Monday.

According to details shared by the Punjab Environment Protection Department, the air quality of Lahore remained extremely dangerous after being recorded at 498. Meanwhile, the Indian capital Delhi is ranked the world’s second most polluted city with 279 on air quality index.

People in Lahore are complaining of eye irritation and sore throat due to smog.

The AQI is calculated based on 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.