Dhaka's position has been fluctuating from first to fifth in the list of the top polluted cities of the world.
On Saturday, the capital's air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 189 in the morning. The country ranked fourth in the latest list of the world cities with the worst air quality.
On last Thursday morning, Dhaka's air quality index was recorded at 204. On that day, the city ranked second in the list of cities with polluted air.
Bosnia Herzegovina’s Sarajevo, Croatia’s Zagreb and Pakistan’s Lahore occupied the first three positions on Saturday, with AQI scores of 268, 209 and 202, respectively.
According to experts, the transport sector is one of the major sources of air pollution in Bangladesh. There are two sources of air pollution in Dhaka city due to burning of something. One of them is transports, and the other is waste incineration.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups. AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', as it poses serious health risks.
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.
Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.