Lahore was shrouded in a dense, hazardous layer of smog on Monday, with monitoring data revealed that the city had the position of being the most polluted city in the world.
According to IQAir on Monday, Lahore’s air quality index (AQI) escalated to a toxic level of 312, with its density of PM2.5 – the most dangerous air pollutant – reaching an alarming 190.5 micrograms per cubic meter (56?g/m³). This level is over 25 times the World Health Organization’s annual air quality standard.
The intensity of the emergency was inconsistent across the city. The real-time station ranking for Lahore revealed a worrying trend, with multiple areas surpassing safe limits. The air quality at the City School, Allama Iqbal Town, was disastrous, recording an AQI of 505, a level considered a public health emergency.
Fauji Fertilizer Pakistan and The City School Shalimar Campus were close behind, with AQIs of 525 and 366, respectively, identifying that millions of residents in these localities were breathing air of dangerous to health.
The smog emergency has led the authorities to declare the whole Province on high alert. The national city ranking revealed a worrying scenario with Pakistani cities, predominantly from Punjab, leading the list. Following Lahore, the cities of Faisalabad (AQI 439) and Multan (AQI 438) at different times of the day, rounded out the top five, all registering air quality classified as harmful.
Other major cities, including Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, and Sialkot, ranked high on the list, denoting a large-scale public health crisis throughout Punjab’s most populated areas.
