Breathing clean air is becoming a difficult task. Only 0.001% of the planet’s population is not exposed to levels of PM2.5 particles lower than those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Now a new study of IQAira company that analyzes air quality around the world, has analyzed the average air quality of 131 countries and territories of the entire planet, with the aim of drawing up a list of the countries with the worst and best air quality and to make their rulers reflect.
As the study certifies, only six countries comply with the WHO guidelines on air quality. Is about Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand. To these must be added another seven territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, including the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico. All of them have an average level of air pollution equal to or less than 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
At the opposite extreme, the countries where the most polluted air on the planet is breathed are, in this order, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Kuwait and India. The inhabitants of all of them suffer from an average air pollution of more than 50 micrograms per cubic meter.
The lack of data
It so happens that many countries do not provide companies like IQAir with their air quality data. This is the case in many African nations, where only 19 of the 54 countries of the continent have sufficient data. In fact, when one of those countries agrees to provide the average levels, they inevitably rank among the most polluted countries on the planet. That is the case of Chad, who did not have data until now, and who has been in the first position on the list.
“Africa is probably the most polluted continent on the planet, but we don’t have enough data,” he told CNN. Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America. “A lot more data is needed before we can really determine which are the most polluted countries and cities in the world.”
That said, what is the way to be a little more like Finland, New Zealand or Iceland and less like Chad, Iraq or Pakistan in terms of pollution? Dolphin Hammes is clear: “It is literally about how we, as a planet, continue this unhealthy relationship with fossil fuels. We continue to depend on them, and they are responsible for most of the air pollution we find on this planet.”
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