Shawdesh dEsk:

Dhaka’s air quality remains in the ‘very unhealthy’ zone this morning. With an air quality index score of 234 at 9:05am on Saturday, the capital of Bangladesh ranked second in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.

An AQI between 151 and 200 is said to be ‘unhealthy’ while 201 and 300 is considered ‘very unhealthy’, and 301 to 400 is considered ‘hazardous’, posing serious health risks to residents.

Uzbekistan’s Tashkent and Bosnia Herzegovina’s Sarajevo occupied the first and third places with AQI of 247 and 223 respectively.

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

Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.

Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing a heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.