Lahore tops world pollution ranking with AQI 419; study puts cost at 6.5% of GDP
A new Pakistan Air Quality Initiative report says toxic air costs the country years of life and a big slice of its economy, a warning that carries weight across South Asia's shared winter smog belt.
Lahore was named the world's most polluted city on Thursday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 419, according to IQAir data for 10 am to 11 am on October 29. Cairo came second at 274, and Karachi was eighth at 165, as reported by Dawn.
The ranking arrives alongside a sobering national assessment from the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI). It estimates that polluted air shortens life expectancy in Pakistan by about 3.9 years and contributes to roughly 128,000 premature deaths a year. For residents of Lahore, long-term exposure could take off as much as seven years.
The bill is not just medical. PAQI puts the economic toll at 6.5 per cent of Pakistan's GDP. For readers who track markets, that is a reminder that bad air shows up in lost productivity, health spending and the cost of doing business, not only in hospital wards.
The report, titled 'Unveiling Pakistan's Air Pollution: A National Landscape Report on Health Risks, Sources, and Solutions', is billed as the country's first unified, multi-sector emissions inventory. It covers Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar. It tracks carbon dioxide, PM2.5, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide across four major airsheds. It also outlines measures that could cut pollutants by up to half, The Express Tribune reported.
For Lahore, the report says the average annual PM2.5 level is above 110 micrograms per cubic metre. That is more than 22 times the World Health Organization's annual guideline of 5. Vehicular transport is the biggest source of PM2.5, followed by industry at 28 per cent and traditional brick kilns at 17 per cent. Cold, stagnant winter weather then makes things worse.
The problem extends well beyond one city. The Punjab government's air quality dashboard showed Kasur with the worst readings in the province. Nankana Sahib (261), Hafizabad (250), Sahiwal (210), Sheikhupura (205), Jhang (203) and Rajanpur (201) were also in the poor-to-severe range. Multan and Gujranwala logged 194 each, Bhakkar 186 and Vehari 181.
The source reporting does not draw a cross-border comparison. Even so, the sources named here (traffic, industry and brick kilns) are familiar to anyone who follows winter pollution on this side of the border. The upside of such a detailed inventory is that it gives policymakers a sector-by-sector map for action, and the report's own estimate is that targeted steps could halve emissions.