Tuesday 11/March/2025 – 10:44 PM
Recent data showed that only 7 countries have fulfilled the standards of the World Health Organization for air quality last year, while researchers warned that the war on smoky fog would become more difficult after the United States has stopped its global monitoring efforts, according to Reuters.
7 countries have fulfilled air quality standards
Chad and Bangladesh were the most polluted country in 2024, as the level of smoke fog was more than 15 times higher than the WHO guidelines, according to the numbers collected by the Swiss air quality monitoring company IQair.
Developing countries relied on sensors
It is only the company Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Greenada, Estonia and Iceland, and the large gaps in data, especially in Asia and Africa, disturb the global image, and many developing countries have relied on air quality sensors installed on American embassies and consulates to track their smoky fog levels.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently ended this plan, citing financial restrictions, with more than 17 years of data removed last week from the US government’s official air control site.
“Most countries have a few other data sources, but this will significantly affect Africa, because these are often the only sources of air quality monitoring data available to the public in actual time,” said Christie Chester Schroeder, Director of Air Quality Science at IQair.
The statements related to data led to the exclusion of Chad from the IQair list of 2023, but it also ranked the most polluted rank in 2022, as it was afflicted with the dust of the Sahara as well as burning unproductive crops.
