Environmental Overview of Air Quality Index (AQI) in Bangladesh: Characteristics and Challenges in Present Era

Abstract

While Bangladesh is moving forward in a fast pace on many fronts, it is seriously lagging in some very important issues. As of writing this, according to the CASE project of Department of Environment, the AQI of Dhaka is 408, which is extremely unhealthy as par AQI category. According to the World Air Quality Report 2020, air quality of Bangladesh is the worst in the world and Dhaka ranks second among the most air polluted cities. Not only Bangladesh, the whole world is suffering from the effects of air pollution, climate change being the most important of all. About 92% of the world’s population breathes air which is toxic to them. About 93% of the children also breathe toxic air. The world is putting their best minds and resources in understanding and solving the air pollution problem, so should we, as we have a long way to go than the others. It was a systemic review study regarding environmental overview of Air Quality Index (AQI) in Bangladesh. We gather different types of articles and newsletters related to Air Quality Index (AQI) using different search portal. After proper review suitable articles and newsletters which were related to this study were taken for this systemic review purpose. People couldn’t see their feet while walking, the air smelled like rotten eggs. This was one of the major air pollution disasters in the human history which claimed the lives of 4000 people in the immediate aftermath. This review presents a clear scenario of air pollution condition in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh from past to present. To this point, some important air pollution epidemiology study should be conducted in Bangladesh to investigate the effects of air pollution on human health by our Govt. to revise the air quality standards to maximize their public health benefits. It’s high time to take immediate actions and programs in our country for controlling air pollution.