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The latest data on the world’s most polluted cities is out, and confirms that Asia has a major crisis on its hands when it comes to air pollution.
The report, released by Greenpeace and software company IQAir AirVisual, shows that 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India. Five are in China, two in Pakistan and one is the capital of Bangladesh: Dhaka.
Air pollution is making the major cities of the world uninhabitable! 😷
Check out the top 100 most air-polluted cities >> https://t.co/gU1JNbNxV1#RightToCleanAir pic.twitter.com/Uqkxs5amZg— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) March 6, 2019
While India dominates the list numerically, Bangladesh is actually the world’s most polluted country on average when weighted by population, followed by India and Pakistan, The New York Times reported.
The report looked at 2018 air quality data assessing levels of particulate matter PM2.5, a particularly dangerous form of air pollution that has been linked to a growing number of health problems from pneumonia and heart disease to dementia and diabetes.
The report assessed 3,000 cities and found that 64 percent of them had PM2.5 levels higher than World Health Organization (WHO) safety guidelines, according to The Guardian. Every city in Africa and the Middle East exceeded the guidelines, as well as 99 percent of South Asian cities and 89 percent of East Asian cities. The study estimates that air pollution will cause seven million early deaths next year, CNN reported.
“Air pollution steals our livelihoods and our futures, but we can change that,” Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia Yeb Saño told The Guardian. “We want this report to make people think about the air we breathe, because when we understand the impacts of air quality on our lives, we will act to protect what’s most important.”
The report indicated that China was having some success in its war on pollution. PM2.5 levels fell around 12 percent for the Chinese cities listed in the report between 2017 and 2018, The New York Times reported. India, however, has had less success. Its cities’ pollution levels saw relatively no change between the two years.
“We’re still in denial,” Jai Dhar Gupta, founder of Indian pollution mask company Nirvana Being, told The New York Times. “The priority for 99 percent of Indians is necessities: food, shelter and clothing. Health and environment are not even in the top 10.”
Here are the world’s 100 most polluted cities according to the report, as summarized by CNN:
1. Gurugram, India
2. Ghaziabad, India
3. Faisalabad, Pakistan
4. Faridabad, India
5. Bhiwadi, India
6. Noida, India
7. Patna, India
8. Hotan, China
9. Lucknow, India
10. Lahore, Pakistan
11. Delhi, India
12. Jodhpur, India
13. Muzaffarpur, India
14. Varanasi, India
15. Moradabad, India
16. Agra, India
17. Dhaka, Bangladesh
18. Gaya, India
19. Kashgar, China
20. Jind, India
21. Kanpur, India
22. Singrauli, India
23. Kolkata, India
24. Pali, India
25. Rohtak, India
26. Mandi Gobindgarh, India
27. Xingtai Shi, China
28. Shijiazhuang, China
29. Ahmedabad, India
30. Aksu, China
31. Handan, China
32. Anyang, China
33. Baoding, China
34. Linfen, China
35. Wujiaqu, China
36. Xianyang, China
37. Jaipur, India
38. Jiaozuo, China
39. Hengshui Shi, China
40. Xuzhou, China
41. Cangzhou Shi, China
42. Pingdingshan, China
43. Kaifeng, China
44. Asansol, India
45. Howrah, India
46. Xuchang, China
47. Zhengzhou, China
48. Tangshan, China
49. Puyang, China
50. Luohe, China
51. Shangqiu, China
52. Kabul, Afghanistan
53. Xinxiang, China
54. Shihezi, China
55. Laiwu, China
56. Nanyang, China
57. Amritsar, India
58. Xiangyang, China
59. Zhumadian, China
60. Liaocheng, China
61. Heze, China
62. Kizilsu, China
63. Xian, China
64. Luoyang, China
65. Yuncheng, China
66. Jincheng, China
67. Manama, Bahrain
68. Urumqi, China
69. Yangquan, China
70. Zhoukou, China
71. Mumbai, India
72. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
73. Huaibei, China
74. Weinan, China
75. Mandideep, India
76. Talcher, India
77. Suzhou, China
78. Zaozhuang, China
79. Sanmenxia, China
80. Bozhou, China
81. Zigong, China
82. Jalandhar, India
83. Jingmen, China
84. Panchkula, India
85. Turpan, China
86. Kuwait City, Kuwait
87. Zibo, China
88. Taiyuan, China
89. Langfang, China
90. Binzhou, China
91. Hebi, China
92. Lukavac, Bosnia-Herzegovina
93. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
94. Udaipur, India
95. Ludhiana, India
96. Changji, China
97. Dezhou, China
98. Huainan, China
99. Fuyang, China
100. Kathmandu, Nepal
Big Cities, Bright Lights: Ranking the Worst Light Pollution on Earth https://t.co/e8HmrGAD77 @Greenpeace @ScienceNewsOrg
— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) June 23, 2018
Correction: This post has been revised to say that air pollution will cause an estimated seven million early deaths next year, according to the study, not seven billion.