Key Points
New Delhi gained the notorious distinction of being labelled the most polluted capital city in the world in the year 2023, as residents breathed air that is nearly 20 times the international safe standard, according to data from Swiss firm IQAir revealed on Tuesday, which also ranked India as the worlds third most polluted country.o)..
With an annual population-weighted PM2.5 of 92.7g/m3, New Delhi edged out Dhaka (80.2 g/m3) to become the worlds most polluted national capital..
Burkina Fasos capital Ouagadougou, with a population-weighted PM2.5 of 46.6g/m3, was a distant third on the list..
The findings were part of the World Air Quality Report 2023 and are concurrent with the annual spectre of air pollution that engulfs the National Capital Region around Diwali every year and extends well into the winter..
The report looked at data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,812 locations in 134 countries, territories, and regions and tracked PM2.5 concentrations fine particulate aerosol particles measuring up to 2.5 microgrammes per cubic metre to understand the exposure to the people living in the specific area and determine a population-weighted exposure level..
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