HYDERABAD: With PM 2.5 levels at an alarming 8.2 times more than the safe levels as prescribed by the World Health Organisation, Hyderabad is the most air polluted city among other cities in south India.
Greenpeace India, which analysed the PM 2.5 levels in the city for a period of 365 days, said in a report that the high air pollution levels can have a negative long-term health impact on citizens. The report says the annual average PM 2.5 concentration level stands at 40.91 ug/m3 in Hyderabad, while Bengaluru with 29.01 ug/m3 and Chennai 23.81 ug/m3 fare much better.
Track the pollution level in your city "The 99th percentile of 24-hour concentrations recorded in Hyderabad over this period is 102.64 ug/m3. This is 6.8 times the safe levels (15 ug/m3) which can cause severe short-term health crisis as per the revised WHO guidelines," the report said.
The alarming levels of PM 2.5 concentrations are found to be recorded on 300 days, which stood at 81.97% in Hyderabad on all the days. The annual average PM 2.5 levels in fact are 41% more than Kochi's 24.11 ug/m3 and 29% more than Bengaluru's 29.01 ug/m3.
When it comes to average PM10 pollutant levels, Hyderabad recorded 57.84 ug/m3. This amounts to being 3.9 times the safe levels (15 ug/m3), the report said.
The report retrieved records of PM10 levels in Hyderabad on 237 days and found that the average is 3.9 times more than safe levels (15 ug/m3). When it comes to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollutant levels, the average levels over the course of 337 days stood at 17.05 ug.m3. This amounts to 1.7 times the safe levels (10 ug/m3) as per WHO guidelines.
Hyderabad recorded hazardous levels of NO2 pollution on 53 days on record which accounted for 15.73%, the report added.
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