Punjab’s capital city passing through dangerously high air quality index (AQI) reading of 1067 on Saturday morning that later improved to 702. Lahore has been on the top of the hazardous air quality list in the world as India’s Kolkata with 253 AQI reading, Delhi, 238, Mumbai 199 and Tashkent in Uzbekistan with 181 reading much behind. Smog in Lahore causing serious health problems for residents toiling in polluted air and reported to have breathing difficulties, coughing and burning eyes. AQI as high as 151-200 is considered unhealthy, while an AQI rating between 201 to 300 is more harmful and AQI over 300 has been extremely hazardous. Lahore had the worst air quality of 1,067 at 9:30 in the morning Swiss air quality watchdog’s real-time list of most polluted cities in the world, despite provincial government’s desperate attempts to fight off smog.

Air pollution level goes upward in the city on the onset of winter, change in the wind speed, wind direction and sliding minimum temperature increases air pollution. The air becomes heavier in the winter and traps poisonous particles in the atmosphere to downward and making the atmosphere polluted. As a result, a layer of polluted particles, including large amounts of carbon and smoke, covers an area. The smoke produced by burning crop remnants, factories and burning coal, garbage, oil or tyres enters in the atmosphere and the impact of it appears at the onset of winter and remain till the season’s end. Thus, air pollution reaches to extremely dangerous levels, severely compromising the air quality.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan