Pakistan’s Urgent Need for Clean Air

Synonyms

Ambient Air Quality; Air Quality Management; Air Pollution

Definitions

Air pollution refers to the presence of toxic chemicals or pollutants in air which deteriorates the quality of air and pose risk to health. The higher the level of these polltants, the more damaging are the impacts on health. These pollutants can either be in gaseous form or can occur in solid form such as particulate matter.

Introduction

Air pollution is one of the most pressing environmental concerns globally. The worsening air quality in Pakistan poses a grave threat to the city dwellers and is a major environmental problem in the country. Pakistan takes three slots among the world’s top ten most polluted cities (Fig. 1) (WHO, Ambient Air Pollution Data 2014). Furthermore, it was ranked 148 among total of 178 countries by the Environmental Performance Index (2014) in terms of human health from environmental damage. Concentrations of toxic pollutants in air are way above the safety thresholds in big...