Essentially the most polluted Indian capital for the third consecutive yr in 2020, in keeping with IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air high quality.

New Delhi was essentially the most polluted capital on this planet for the third consecutive yr in 2020, in keeping with IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air high quality ranges by the focus of airborne particles dangerous to the air. the lungs, known as PM2.5.

India was residence to 35 of the 50 most polluted cities on this planet, in keeping with IQAir’s 2020 International Air High quality Report, which gathered knowledge for 106 international locations.

The outcomes had been primarily based on the nation’s annual common of PM2.5 particles, airborne particles lower than 2.5 microns in diameter. Extended publicity to PM2.5 can result in life-threatening diseases, together with most cancers and coronary heart issues.

In 2020, the common annual focus of PM2.5 in New Delhi in a single cubic meter of air was 84.1, in keeping with the examine, greater than double the extent in Beijing, which was on common 37.5 throughout of the yr, making it the 14th most polluted metropolis on this planet. .

Air air pollution prompted round 54,000 untimely deaths in New Delhi in 2020, in keeping with a current examine by Greenpeace Southeast Asia Evaluation and IQAir.

Regardless of an 11% discount in annual common PM2.5 ranges as a consequence of nationwide coronavirus lockdown restrictions imposed final yr, India has develop into the third most polluted nation on this planet after the Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“Air air pollution in India remains to be dangerously excessive,” the report says.

In 2020, South Asia suffered one of many world’s worst air high quality on document, he mentioned.

Final yr, Delhi’s 20 million individuals, who breathed a few of the purest air on document throughout the summer time months as a result of locking curbs, battled the poisonous air within the winter, on account of ‘a pointy enhance in farm fires in neighboring Punjab.

As crop stubble burning peaked, PM2.5 ranges in Delhi averaged 144 micrograms per cubic meter in November and 157 micrograms per cubic meter in December, exceeding the rule of thumb by greater than 14 instances. World Well being Group annual exhibition, he mentioned.