The world's most polluted cities: 22 out of 30 are in India

The study by Greenpeace and IQAir AirVisual. 3 thousand urban centers have been examined worldwide. 100% of the locations in the Middle East and Africa exceed the maximum levels of fine dust allowed by the World Health Organization. Seven million people are at risk each year.


New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - India holds the record in the world ranking of the most polluted cities in the world: 22 cities out of 30.

The study on 3 thousand urban centers spread all over the planet was carried out by Greenpeace and IQAir AirVisual and published on Bloomberg. It reveals an alarming fact: everywhere the limits imposed by the World Health Organization (Who) to the amount of fine particles present in the air we breathe are not respected.

The most polluted city in the world is Gurugram, a technological center in the southwest of Delhi, the capital of the Union. This is home to the headquarters of large multinational companies such as Uber and TripAdvisor. It is followed by Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Faisalabad (in Pakistan) on the last step of the podium. Delhi is 11th.

In the ranking of the top 10 most unhealthy cities in the world there is room for only one that is not in South Asia: it is Hotan, in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang, which appears in eighth place (photo 2).

The Who sets at 10 μg / m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) the maximum annual concentration of PM 2.5 particulate matter in the air, a toxic substance so thin that it can penetrate into the lungs, and from these, into the blood. According to the study, all the cities analyzed in the Middle East and Africa exceed this limit; 99% of those found in South Asia; 89% of the locations examined in East Asia.

The organization estimates that at least seven million people die each year from respiratory problems related to air pollution. For the World Bank, the economic cost of job losses of these deaths is $ 225 billion (€ 199 billion).