India’s Air Quality Badens Delhi and Chandigarh Among the Worst
Air quality in India remains one of the major causes for concern as pollution levels worsen in many of its major cities. Here are some of the cities with an alarming Air Quality Index recorded on November 14th at 7 a.m.
AQI is an index based on the measurement of quality of air by analysing the pollutant measurement including PM2.5, PM10, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. The measurements are scaled up between 0 to 500. The larger number indicates greater air pollution and correspondingly higher health risk.
It reached 430 in Delhi. This makes it fall in the severe category. Hazardous air such as this poses a serious risk even to healthy persons but the condition deteriorates more for people having respiratory or heart problems.
Chandigarh ranked second with an AQI of 418 followed by Noida at 367. Other cities such as Gurugram was at 309 and Churu at 290, all of which reflect terrible air quality that can lead to serious health issues if exposure is prolonged.
Kolkata and Ahmedabad cities reported AQI at 162 and 163, respectively with moderate to unhealthy air quality. This means the sensitive groups need to take precautions.
On the other hand are Chennai and Aizawl that report AQI levels of 44 and 32 respectively. These are in the good categories indicating clean and healthy air for all people in the respective cities.
AQI levels in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru were measured at 127, 96 and 49 respectively and are therefore within the moderate to satisfactory range. Although these levels pose no immediate danger still some long-term health impacts may occur due to continuous exposure.
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