The air quality of the federal capital on Monday was reported healthy as the air pollutants tainting the ambience and endangering human health were recorded below permissible limits of the national environmental quality standards.
The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) issued its 24-hour ambient air quality report that provided readings of the air quality monitors recorded in three different durations of 8-hour.
The particulate matter of 2.5 microns which is a deadly air pollutant capable enough to penetrate into human blood vessels and cause damage to health leading to serious complications, was 18.19 microgrammes per cubic meter (mg/m3) which as per the NEQS value should be 35 mg/m3.
It is mainly generated due to the burning of fuel during combustion of automobile engines, industrial furnaces, belching plants, garbage and plastic burning etc. According to the Pak-EPA, the environmental watchdog, industrial emissions were not alarming but the vehicular emissions were a major snag contributing substantially to the crisis of air pollution in the capital that soars during winters and fall season.
The nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) that were mainly the product of industrial activities were recorded 9.55mg/m3 and 11.779 mg/m3 respectively against the NEQS of 80 mg/m3 and 120 mg/m3.
The average temperature was recorded 36.33 during the past 24 hours and humidity remained 51.33 percent in the atmosphere.
Senator Sherry Rehman in her post written on X said, “Air pollution is no Instagram filter you can swipe away. In fact, for a country with low emissions on a global scale, our air quality is cause for action at scale. Conservative estimates suggest that 128,000 people die in Pakistan from air pollution annually.”
