The quality of the air in a given city is something that can be determined by measuring the quantity of particulate matter in the air, and this is represented as PM2.5. The World Health Organization changed its air quality guidelines last year, and the new guidelines indicate that anything beyond 5 micrograms is far too much to be healthy for people that are breathing these particles in which can cause lung problems among various other issues.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that according to these new guidelines, none of the 6,475 cities that were surveyed in 2021 had air quality that was up to healthy standards. IQAir recently conducted a survey to get to the bottom of how bad things were, and this survey showed that around 93 cities had air pollution levels that were ten times higher than what was recommended by the World Health Organization.
Such a development is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up causing widespread damage to people’s health in the coming years. While some countries like China have made a lot of progress in this regard, quite a few others have gotten even worse than they used to be with all things having been considered and taken into account.
India, for example, saw even worse pollution levels in 2021 than it saw in 2020. However, that might have to do with the pandemic preventing people from driving around and creating emissions in a manner that used to be considered commonplace. However, New Delhi has been the most polluted capital city in the world for quite some time now, and other South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan are doing extremely poorly as well.
The kind of city planning that has been done makes it difficult to get by without using a car and creating polluting emissions, and changing city planning processes can help to make air quality a lot better all around the world.
Read next: North and South Poles Suffer Massive Heatwaves With Temperatures 70 Degrees Higher Than Average
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that according to these new guidelines, none of the 6,475 cities that were surveyed in 2021 had air quality that was up to healthy standards. IQAir recently conducted a survey to get to the bottom of how bad things were, and this survey showed that around 93 cities had air pollution levels that were ten times higher than what was recommended by the World Health Organization.
Such a development is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up causing widespread damage to people’s health in the coming years. While some countries like China have made a lot of progress in this regard, quite a few others have gotten even worse than they used to be with all things having been considered and taken into account.
India, for example, saw even worse pollution levels in 2021 than it saw in 2020. However, that might have to do with the pandemic preventing people from driving around and creating emissions in a manner that used to be considered commonplace. However, New Delhi has been the most polluted capital city in the world for quite some time now, and other South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan are doing extremely poorly as well.
The kind of city planning that has been done makes it difficult to get by without using a car and creating polluting emissions, and changing city planning processes can help to make air quality a lot better all around the world.
Read next: North and South Poles Suffer Massive Heatwaves With Temperatures 70 Degrees Higher Than Average
