Pakistan’s severe air pollution is cutting average life expectancy by 3.9 years and causing about 128,000 premature deaths a year, according to a new national report by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, cited by The Express Tribune. The pollution-related cost to the economy is estimated at 6.5 percent of GDP.
Lahore is among the worst affected cities, with an annual average PM2.5 concentration above 110 micrograms per cubic metre — more than 22 times the World Health Organization’s recommended annual limit of five. Sustained exposure of that kind could cut life expectancy in Lahore by up to seven years. In Lahore, transport accounts for 35 percent of primary PM2.5 emissions, followed by industry at 28 percent and brick kilns at 17 percent, while in Karachi industry accounts for 49 percent.
The findings land on a day when Lahore again topped the world’s major-city pollution ranking, and they underline that smog is not only a winter inconvenience but a long-term health and economic burden. Reducing it will require action on vehicles, industry and brick kilns together, not any single measure alone.
Sources: Express Tribune (Pakistan Air Quality Initiative report), Tribune. Written in our own words for information only.