3.16
Air pollution City
City population
Particulate matter concentration
Sulfur dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide
About the data
Indoor and outdoor air pollution place a major burden
Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Croatia Cuba Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Egypt, Arab Rep. Finland France Germany Ghana Greece Hungary Iceland India
198
Buenos Aires Córdoba Melbourne Perth Sydney Vienna Brussels Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Sofia Montréal Toronto Vancouver Santiago Anshan Beijing Changchun Chengdu Chongqing Dalian Foshan Guangzhou Guiyang Harbin Jinan Kunming Lanzhou Liupanshui Nanchang Shanghai Shenyang Shenzhen Tianjin Wuhan Xi’an Zhengzhou Zibo Bogotá Zagreb Havana Prague Copenhagen Guayaquil Quito Cairo Helsinki Paris Berlin Frankfurt Munich Accra Athens Budapest Reykjavik Ahmadabad Bengaluru
2012 World Development Indicators
Urbanpopulation-weighted PM10 micrograms micrograms per per micrograms per cubic meter cubic meter cubic meter thousands 2010 1990 2009 2001 a 2001 a
on world health. More than half the world’s people
13,074 1,493 3,853 1,599 4,429 1,706 1,904 11,950 20,262 1,196 3,783 5,449 2,220 5,952 1,663 12,385 3,597 4,961 9,401 3,306 4,969 8,884 2,154 4,251 3,237 3,116 2,285 1,221b 2,701 16,575 5,166 9,005 7,884 7,681 4,747 2,966 2,456 8,500 779 b 2,130 1,162 1,186 2,690 1,846 11,001 1,117 10,485 3,450 680 b 1,349 2,342 3,257 1,706 319 b 5,717 7,218
pollution, which is responsible for 1.6 million deaths a
159 78 17 16 27 45 33 50 57 118 24 29 17 100 132 141 117 136 194 79 107 99 111 121 148 111 145 94 124 115 160 89 198 125 221 154 117 51 48 35 42 30 33 44 274 24 14 30 27 27 37 69 35 23 126 68
92 45 11 11 17 32 23 25 28 49 15 18 11 60 68 73 61 71 101 41 56 52 58 63 77 58 75 49 65 60 83 46 103 65 115 80 61 27 26 17 17 17 18 24 112 17 10 18 16 16 21 33 16 16 66 35
.. .. .. 5 28 14 20 129 43 39 10 17 14 29 115 90 21 77 340 61 .. 57 424 23 132 19 102 102 69 53 99 .. 82 40 .. 63 198 .. 31 1 14 7 15 22 69 4 14 18 11 8 .. 34 39 5 30 ..
.. 97 30 19 81 42 48 .. 83 122 42 43 37 81 88 122 64 74 70 100 .. 136 53 30 45 33 104 .. 29 73 73 .. 50 43 .. 95 43 .. .. 5 33 54 .. .. .. 35 57 26 45 53 .. 64 51 42 21 ..
rely on dung, wood, crop waste, or coal to meet basic energy needs. Cooking and heating with these fuels on open fires or stoves without chimneys lead to indoor air year—one every 20 seconds. In many urban areas air pollution exposure is the main environmental threat to health. Long-term exposure to high levels of soot and small particles contributes to a range of health effects, including respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and heart disease. Particulate pollution, alone or with sulfur dioxide, creates an enormous burden of ill health. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions lead to deposition of acid rain and other acidic compounds over long distances, which can lead to the leaching of trace minerals and nutrients critical to trees and plants. Sulfur dioxide emissions can damage human health, particularly that of the young and old. Nitrogen dioxide is emitted by bacteria, motor vehicles, industrial activities, nitrogen fertilizers, fuel and biomass combustion, and aerobic decomposition of organic matter in soils and oceans. Where coal is the primary fuel for power plants without effective dust controls, steel mills, industrial boilers, and domestic heating, high levels of urban air pollution are common— especially particulates and sulfur dioxide. Elsewhere the worst emissions are from petroleum product combustion. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide concentration data are based on average observed concentrations at urban monitoring sites, which not all cities have. The data on particulate matter are estimated average annual concentrations in residential areas away from air pollution “hotspots,” such as industrial districts and transport corridors. The data are from the World Bank’s Development Research Group and Environment Department estimates of annual ambient concentrations of particulate matter in cities with populations exceeding 100,000 (Pandey and others 2006b). A country’s technology and pollution controls are important determinants of particulate matter concentrations. Pollutant concentrations are sensitive to local conditions, and even monitoring sites in the same city may register different levels. Thus these data should be considered only a general indication of air quality, and comparisons should be made with caution. Current World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines are annual mean concentrations of 20 micrograms per cubic meter for particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter and 40 micrograms for nitrogen dioxide and daily mean concentrations of 20 micrograms per cubic meter for sulfur dioxide.