The City With The Worst Air Pollution In The World Today
One of the largest cities in the world has the worst air pollution score. IQAir shows that Delhi has an air quality score of 421. Anything above 301 receives a “hazardous” designation, the most dangerous possible. Based on AirIQ scores. Delhi ranks 9th worst of all time among 7,000 metros measure. The data goes back to 2017.
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Scores are based on five major pollutants in a cubic meter of air. These are carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ground-level ozone, and particulate matter under 10 microns in width. AQI values over 300 trigger health warnings of emergency conditions. “The entire population is even more likely to suffer serious health effects,” when the score is at that level or above. In Delh’s case, this situation will almost certainly never improve. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Vehicular emissions and industrial activities were found to be associated with indoor as well as outdoor air pollution in Delhi.”
Delhi faces a severe air pollution problem today. According to The New India Express, earlier this week, the city put restrictions on industrial and individual activity to try to bring hazardous air conditions down. Among them was to block “BSIV diesel four-wheelers.” BSIV-powered engines use sulfur-based fuel, a major cause of dangerous pollution.
The trucks are at the heart of the problem. Many of these are over a decade old and run on engine types the design of which is very old. Upgrading these engines across the fleets of trucks that enter the city would cost well into the billions of dollars. The logistics to do so would be incredibly complex and beyond the government’s ability to organize.
Delhi will continue to need to make the impossible balance of commerce and home fuel activity on the one hand and the health of its residents on the other. Health continues to lose.
Delhi is the second largest city in the world based on population of 32 million, which puts it very slightly behind Tokyo. Consequently, on days when the air is particularly polluted, the health of hundreds of thousands of people is at risk.
