Published on 11:18 AM, July 13, 2022

Air quality in traffic free Dhaka “good” today, according to AQI

Indonesia’s Jakarta, Pakistan’s Lahore, Chile’s Santiago top 3 cities with worst air

Photo: Palash Khan

Dhaka's air quality was "good" this morning (July 13, 2022).

With an air quality index (AQI) score of 37 at 9:04am today, the capital city of Bangladesh ranked 39th in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.

Indonesia's Jakarta, Pakistan's Lahore and Chile's Santiago occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 160, 151 and 124, respectively.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good" while between 50 and 100 is "moderate".

An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered "unhealthy", particularly for sensitive groups.

Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be "poor", while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered "hazardous", posing serious health risks to residents.

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.

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