Most of the world’s population is exposed to polluted air, with only a small fraction of cities meeting air pollution standards, according to a report by the air quality monitoring database IQAir. The report reveals that Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Congo, and India were among the top five most polluted countries, while Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Estonia, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand were the only countries to meet the World Health Organization’s annual average PM2.5 guideline. India was particularly hard hit, with 13 of its cities making the list of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities. Byrnihat, a small industrial town in northeast India, was identified as the most polluted metropolitan area, and Delhi continued to be the most polluted capital city. The report also highlighted the lack of monitoring stations in Africa, with only one station per 3.7 million people, indicating that the actual level of air pollution could be higher than recorded. However, Oceania was found to be the cleanest region, with more than half of its cities meeting air quality guidelines.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/majority-of-the-world-has-polluted-air-report/a-71884331?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf