This is a threshold more than 80 times higher than that considered acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO). Air pollution in Lahore, Pakistan’s second city, reached a record high on Saturday, November 2, a government official told Agence France-Presse.
The WHO air quality index for fine particulate matter, PM2.5, peaked at 1,067 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3), before falling back to around 300 µg/m3 in the morning. However, air is considered to be ” bad “ from 180 µg/m3according to the WHO index, and ” dangerous “ beyond 300. “We never reached the 1,000 level” in Lahore, Jahangir Anwar, a senior environmental protection official with the local government, told Agence France-Presse.
This week, the air quality index. “it stayed below 200” in the city of 14 million inhabitants. The concentration of PM2.5 was already almost twenty times higher than the level considered acceptable by the WHO, he continued. On Saturday they reached 80 times this level.
For days, Lahore, like every year, has been trapped in smog, a mix of smog and polluting emissions caused by low-end diesel fumes, gases from seasonal agricultural burning and the winter cold. “The air quality index will remain high for the next three or four days”added Mr Anwar.
Petition for “smog diplomacy”
On Wednesday, the provincial environmental protection agency announced new restrictions in four “hot spots” of the city – after having canceled all outdoor sports activities in schools for three months.
Tuk-tuks equipped with two-stroke engines, which are more polluting, are prohibited, as are restaurants that have barbecues without filters. Administrations and private companies will have half of their staff working from home starting Monday. Construction work is suspended and street food vendors, who often cook on stoves, must close at 8 p.m.
In addition, Pakistani authorities say that on Saturday they will have to deal with a wind from neighboring India, which is also regularly affected by smog at the end of the year. NASA satellite images show numerous fires on both sides of the border where farmers are conducting agricultural burning this season.
“The level [de pollution] It is due to the easterly wind corridor coming from India towards Lahore »said Mr. Anwar, who advocates for a “smog diplomacy”. Smog is particularly bad in winter, when cold, denser air traps emissions from the poor quality fuels used to power the city’s vehicles and factories at ground level.
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According to the WHO, prolonged exposure to smog can cause strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases. The Punjab government has appealed to the people, especially “those who suffer from respiratory, lung and heart diseases, the elderly” has “do not leave your homes”. If they go out, they must “they must wear masks”.
