Shawdesh desk:

Dhaka’s air quality continues to be ‘unhealthy’, but that’s good news for the residents of the densely populated capital of Bangladesh.

The capital has, in fact, slipped to the fourth position in the latest list of world cities with the worst air quality.

On Saturday, the capital’s air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 189 at 9.04am.

Bosnia Herzegovina’s Sarajevo, Croatia’s Zagreb and Pakistan’s Lahore occupied the first three spots, with AQI scores of 268, 209  and 202, respectively.

An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered ‘unhealthy’, particularly for sensitive groups.

Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be ‘poor’, while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered ‘hazardous’, posing serious health risks to residents.

AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, is used by government agencies to inform people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants — Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.