• About 90% of the worldwide population in 2022 seasoned unhealthy air top quality, according to a new report from Swiss air top quality technologies business IQAir.
• IQAir measured air top quality levels primarily based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles identified as PM two.five.
• The report identified that the best 5 most polluted nations in 2022 had been Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh.

Commuters make their way along a street amid smoggy and foggy circumstances early in the morning in Lahore on January three, 2023.

Arif Ali | AFP | Getty Photos

About 90% of the worldwide population in 2022 seasoned unhealthy air top quality, and only six nations met the Planet Well being Organization’s suggestions of secure air pollutant levels, according to a new report from Swiss air top quality technologies business IQAir.

IQAir measured air top quality levels primarily based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles identified as PM two.five. Study shows that exposure to such particulate matter can lead to heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature death. Research have also linked lengthy-term exposure to PM two.five with higher prices of death from Covid-19.

When the WHO very first published air top quality guidance in 2005, it mentioned the acceptable levels of air pollution had been much less than ten micrograms per cubic meter. In 2021, the WHO changed its benchmark suggestions to beneath five micrograms per cubic meter.

The report identified that the best 5 most polluted nations in 2022 had been Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh. The most polluted cities globally had been Lahore, Pakistan Hotan, China Bhiwadi, India Delhi, India and Peshawar, Pakistan.

Lahore’s air top quality worsened to 97.four micrograms of PM two.five particles per cubic meter in 2022 from 86.five in the year prior, generating it the most polluted city in the planet.

The report also mentioned India and Pakistan endured the worst air top quality in the Central and South Asian area, exactly where extra than half of the population resides in regions exactly where the concentration of PM two.five particles is about seven occasions larger than WHO’s recommended levels.

In the U.S., the most polluted important cities had been Columbus, Ohio, followed by Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis and Dallas. Air top quality in Columbus hit 13.1 micrograms of PM two.five particles per cubic meter in 202, generating it the most polluted important city in the U.S.

The Biden administration this year proposed limiting pollution of industrial fine soot particles from the present annual level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level in between 9 and ten micrograms per cubic meter. Some public well being advocates criticized that proposal as not going far adequate.

Only six nations met the WHO’s updated well being limits: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand, the report mentioned. The 2022 report employed air top quality information from extra than 30,000 regulatory air top quality monitoring stations and air top quality sensors from 7,323 cities across 131 nations, regions and territories.

Air pollution requires extra than two years off the typical worldwide life expectancy, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Sixty % of particulate matter air pollution comes from fossil fuel combustion.

“As well quite a few persons about the planet never know that they are breathing polluted air,” Aidan Farrow, senior air top quality scientist at Greenpeace International, mentioned in a statement.

“Air pollution monitors deliver tough information that can inspire communities to demand adjust and hold polluters to account, but when monitoring is patchy or unequal, vulnerable communities can be left with no information to act on,” Farrow mentioned.