The PM2.5 air pollution measurements from air monitoring stations in 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories was released –IQAir’s 2021 World Air Quality Report in which Belagavi ranks 546 out of the 6,475 cities with a PM2.5 value of 28.1.
The PM2.5 for Belagavi (annual Average) stood at 28.1 which is 6 times above the World Health Organization (WHO) prescribed limit.
IQAir’s 2021 World Air Quality Report is the first major global air quality report based on the updated annual WHO air quality guideline for PM2.5. The new guideline was released in September 2021 and cut the existing annual PM2.5 guideline value from 10 µg/m3 to 5 µg/m3.
Fine particle pollution, known as PM2.5, is commonly accepted to be the most harmful, widely-monitored air pollutant and has been found to be a major contributing factor to health effects such as asthma, stroke, heart and lung diseases. PM2.5 leads to millions of premature deaths every year.
Belagavi ranks at 4th place in Karnataka as per the report with Hubballi, Yadgiri, Bengaluru above it and followed by Chikkaballapur, Vijaypura, Ramnagar, Chikkamagalur, Madikeri, Chamarajanagar, Bagalkote, Haveri, Mangaluru and Mysuru which recorded the lowest PM2.5 value of 19.1
Key findings
- No country met the latest WHO air quality guideline for PM2.5 in 2021.
- Only the territories of New Caledonia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico met updated WHO PM2.5 air quality guidelines.
- Only 222 out of 6,475 global cities covered in the report met updated WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- 93 cities in the report had annual PM2.5 concentrations exceeding 10 times the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- Of 174 Latin America and the Caribbean cities, only 12 (7 percent) met the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- Of 65 African cities, only one (1.5 percent) met updated annual WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- Of 1,887 Asian cities, only four (0.2 percent) met updated WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- Of the 1,588 cities in Europe, only 55 (3 percent) met the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
- The report covered 2,408 cities in the United States and found that average PM2.5 concentrations rose from 9.6 µg/m3 to 10.3 µg/m3 in 2021 compared to 2020. Of the major cities in the United States, Los Angeles was the most polluted. However, the City of Angels saw an overall decrease in PM2.5 pollution of 6 percent compared to 2020.
- The top five most polluted countries in 2021 were:
- Bangladesh
- Chad
- Pakistan
- Tajikistan
- India
- New Delhi (India) is the world’s most polluted capital city for the fourth consecutive year followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh), N’Djamena (Chad), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Muscat (Oman).