WARNING: Breathing is Hazardous to Health
Two studies published this week show that the air in Kathmandu is even more hazardous to health than previous research showed because of high concentrations of toxic gases, leading to premature deaths from lung diseases.
Dirty air is reducing the lifespan of Nepalis by nearly 7 years in the Tarai, by 3 years in Kathmandu Valley, and Nepal has the highest lung disease death rate in the world, new research papers warn. Another study points to very high concentrations of poisonous nitrous oxides as well as tiny suspended particulates, due to the increase of vehicles in Kathmandu Valley.
Released on 17 August, A State of Global Air Report 2022 zeroes in on two main urban pollutants in over 7,000 cities around the world — particles measuring 2.5μm or less (PM2.5), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). While Kathmandu is surprisingly not on the list of top 20 most polluted cities, the study shows that the Valley has seen a dangerous increase in the concentration of both pollutants since 2000.
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According to the Air Quality Life Index, an initiative of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, Nepal is the third most polluted country in the world with all of its 30 million population living in areas where the average particulate matter concentration exceeds the WHO threshold of 5μg/m³.