Residents of Pakistan’s cultural heartland, Lahore, were forced to breathe the world’s most toxic air on Friday as a severe wave of pollution choked the city. The global air quality monitoring organization, IQAir, ranked Lahore as the number one most polluted city in the world in its latest rankings.
The data, which highlights a significant public health emergency, was recorded at approximately 9:30 AM. At that time, Lahore’s Air Quality Index (AQI) reached a hazardous level of 312.
This crisis is not confined to Lahore, as other major South Asian cities also feature prominently on the list. India’s capital, New Delhi, was ranked second with an AQI of 206, while the Indian city of Kolkata stood at third with a level of 174.
Pakistan’s financial hub, Karachi, was not far behind, ranking as the fourth most polluted city globally with an Air Quality Index of 173.
At the provincial level, data from the Punjab Air Quality Index showed that the area of Chak Jhumra was the worst affected, registering an alarming AQI of 664.
