Cities of World Ranked by Exposure to Particulates

Database: outdoor air pollution in cities (World Health Organization - Public Health and Environment)

Also discussed here: WHO excel spreadsheet with city and country PM 2.5 and PM 10 annual averages

And here: The Cities with the Worst Air Pollution in the World (24/7 Wall St., Sep. 28, 2011)

And here: WHO Reveals Cities With Most And Least Polluted Air (MNT Medical news today, Sep. 27, 2011)

And here: The 10 Most Air-Polluted Cities in the U.S. (Bryan Walsh, Time, Sep. 29, 2011)
The focus today is on a list of cities in the world with the most and least pollution. Not surprisingly, those with the least pollution are small cities located some distance from industry in western Canada and USA and in southeast Australia, while the most polluted are in developing industrialized countries in Asia and Central America. The measure used for this comparison is particulate matter which comes from a number of sources in industry and from (diesel) vehicle emissions. IMHO, a better measure in cities afflicted with traffic air pollution might be nitrogen and carbon oxides (NO2 and CO2).



Key Quotes:

“The database contains results of urban outdoor air pollution monitoring from almost 1100 cities in 91 countries. Air quality is represented by annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5, i.e. particles smaller than 10 or 2.5 microns).”

“ more than 10% of the 1,000 or so cities listed … have an annual average of 70 µg/m3 of PM10.. A reduction from this level to 20 µg/m3 of PM10 could result in a 15% reduction in premature deaths”

“there are over 400 cities with annual average PM10 levels below the 20 µg/m3 guideline: In Canada: Whitehorse ,Yukon (3 µg/m3), Kitimat,BC (4), Burns Lake, BC (5), Houston, BC (5); In USA: Clearlake Calif (6) and Santa Fe, New Mex (6)”

“84 cities that have an annual average PM10 level of 11 µg/m3 and under”

“For 2008, the number of premature deaths attributable to urban outdoor air pollution is estimated to amount to 1.34 million worldwide. ..an increase of 16% as compared to the previous figure of 1.15 million deaths for the year 2004. This increase is linked to recent increases in both air pollution concentrations and the total population affected as cities grow”

“Of these, 1.09 million deaths could be avoided if the mean annual Air Quality Guideline values of PM10=20μg/m3 and PM2.5=10 μg/m3 were implemented”

Related articles

• Global air pollution: what is the most polluted country and city in the world? (guardian.co.uk)
• Canadians breathe some of world's cleanest air: WHO (canada.com)
• Canadians breathe some of the cleanest air in world: WHO (calgaryherald.com)
• Air pollution fueling respiratory diseases in cities: WHO (news.bioscholar.com)
• Air pollution from traffic impairs brain (telegraph.co.uk)
• Outdoor air pollution kills 1.3 million each year (aleksandreia.wordpress.com)
• Air Pollution Effects are ten thousand times the possible effects of Chernobyl (nextbigfuture.com)
• Canada's air among the world's best: WHO report (ctv.ca)
• World's Most Dangerous Places to Breath (forbes.com)
• Air pollution 'ups preterm birth risk by 30 pc' (news.bioscholar.com)
• WHO: Iran, Asian Cities Worst Air Pollution (time.com)