Even one of the one of the world's top 20 most polluted cities in Asia last year, a new study shows.
The majority of these cities-13-in -s in the most densely populated country in the world, India, where flourishing economic growth is largely dismissed by coal and where hundreds of millions of traffic hidden and busy megacities live.
Another four are in neighboring Pakistan, with China and Kazakhstan respectively.
The only city outside of Asia on the list is N'Djamena, the capital of Chad in Central Africa – who was declared the country with the worst air pollution.
In the meantime, the cities with the worst pollution in North America were all in California.
The report of IQair, a Swiss company that follows global air quality, looked specifically at fine particles, or PM2.5, one of the smallest but most dangerous contaminating substances.
PM2.5 comes from sources such as the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and forest fires. It is so small – 1/20 of a width of a human hair – that it can travel past the usual defense of your body in your lungs or bloodstream.
The particles cause irritation and inflammation and are linked to breathing problems and chronic kidney disease. Exposure can cause cancer, stroke or heart attacks and is associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
A bird flies on November 20, 2024 through a thick layer of smog in New Delhi, India. – Manish Swarup/AP/File
N'djamena, Chad, was ranked as the most polluted city in 2024. – Irem Demir/Anadolu/Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the average annual levels of PM2.5 may not exceed more than 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
Byrnihat, an industrial city in Northeast India, recorded a PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 -more than 25 times the WHOs Standard last year.
“It feels very sad and helpless that Byrnihat the list remains at the top,” Suman Momin, 26, who lives in the city of around 70,000, told CNN.
She blamed factories in the city and a flourishing construction industry and trees were felled as contributions to the toxic air.
“The pollution is particularly bad at the moment, the visibility is not great, there is dust everywhere, my eyes burn too,” she said.
“I don't leave the house without a mask.”
Twelve other cities in the top 20 are in India.
The capital New Delhi was for the sixth consecutive year as the world's most polluted capital, with a PM2.5 concentration of 91.8. The report also stated six satellite cities – Faridabad, Loni, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Greater Noida – make the list.
Last November a throat department of Smog over Delhi, which disturbed flights, blocked buildings from view and encourages the main minister of the city to explain a 'medical emergency'.
But in general, India – the world's most populated nation with 1.4 billion people dropped from third to fifth place in the previous year, according to the report.
But the report said that air pollution “remains a considerable health burden … Reducing life expectancy with an estimated 5.2 years.”
A man is wearing a mask while walking past a small iron factory in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 16, 2024. – KM Chaudary/AP
The neighbors of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan-Benam the home base of around 400 million people's goods according to the report The second and third most polluted countries worldwide in terms of PM2.5 molecules worldwide.
China – who used to dominate the worldwide rankings of the worst air in the world – noted a small improvement, according to the report.
The national annual average PM2.5 concentration fell from 32.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 31, where air quality improves in mega cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the report said.
China is the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter, but has led a campaign against air pollution in recent years, in particular in the cities that have fueled its economic growth, and has pushed a huge expansion in solar and wind energy.
But last month two clean energy groups raised the alarm about what they said, plans of the Chinese power industry were almost 100 gigawatts of new coal plant capacity last year, most of them in almost a decade.
All 20 of the world's most polluted cities last year surpassed the WHO PM2.5 guidelines with more than 10 times, the IQ Air Report showed.
Data locations
“Air pollution remains a crucial threat to both human health and the stability of the environment, but huge populations do not remain aware of their exposure levels,” said Frank Hammes, worldwide CEO of Iqair.
Iran and Afghanistan did not stand up this year due to a lack of data availability.
Air quality monitoring in Southeast Asia is also a problem, in which almost all countries 'have important gaps in the government-led initiatives', the report showed.
Vehicles run in the middle of a high level of air pollution in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 5, 2024. – Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
In 2024, 173 of the 392 cities in the region was missing over the government's monitoring stations, while Cambodia had none, said it.
Those problems are likely to be exacerbated after the US had announced earlier this month that it would stop sharing data from the air quality collected from his embassies and worldwide by the “financing restrictions” that the Associated Press reported.
“Air quality data saves lives,” said Hammes.
“It creates much -needed consciousness, informs policy decisions, supervising public health interventions and enables communities to take action to reduce air pollution and protect future generations.”
Worst cities in North America
Only 17% of the 8,954 cities that were analyzed worldwide by Iqair Recored Air Quality that met WHO guidelines for pollution, according to the report.
The cities with the worst air pollution in North America were Ontario, Bloomington and Huntington Park – all in California, according to the report.
In general, the United States saw a significant reduction of PM2.5 levels last year, with the annual average that fell 22% compared to 2023.
North America has long talked powerful powerful air quality monitoring systems and has 56% of the total number of land-based air quality monitoring stations in the IQ-air report contributed contributors with their continuous research into air quality and helping policy makers to make decisions about public health.
Only 12 countries, regions and areas registered PM2.5 concentrations among the WHO guidelines, most of which were in the Latin -America and Caribbean or Oceania region.
The report called on governments to spend financing on renewable energy projects and “to strengthen the emission limits for vehicles and industrial activities.”
Advies Suman wishes the authorities to take in Byrnihat to save her city from the appearance of the most polluted list again next year.
“People in the neighborhood have also developed respiratory issues over the years,” she told CNN.
“This is my birthplace. I am a local. I don't want to leave this area. We want the governments to do more, come together and work for us. '
Aishwarya S Iyer has contributed to reporting
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