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The air quality in Australia was amongst the worst in the world at times during the bushfire crisis that raged through large swathes of eastern states in December and January.
Key points:
- Canberra had the world's most polluted air on New year's Day, but overall, Australia's air quality is very good
- India had 21 of the world's top 30 polluted cities in terms of air quality in 2019
- Bangladesh was the country with the world's worst air quality in 2019
And at one point, the national capital of Canberra had some of the worst air quality on the planet.
The thick smoke led to some Australians wearing masks as they tried to cope with the heat combining with the smoke that polluted major cities including Sydney.
But if they think that is bad, spare a thought for the people of India.
The nation of over 1.3 billion had 21 of the world's top 30 most-polluted cities and six of the top 10 for 2019.
The data was revealed in IQ Air's study of the world's most polluted cities for 2019, in which 93 cities recorded an overall yearly air quality in the unhealthy bracket.
Researchers from IQ Air — a global air quality information and technology company — collected their data for the report from on the ground monitoring stations that measure levels of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5.
The microscopic particles, which are smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, are considered particularly harmful as they are small enough to enter deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system of a human.
Ghaziabad, an area close to New Delhi in northern Uttar Pradesh state, is ranked as the world's most polluted, with an average PM 2.5 concentration measurement of 110.2 in 2019.
That rating is nine times more than what is considered to be healthy by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The air quality in India is so routinely toxic that in November, a public health emergency was declared after the air quality index exceeded 800 in certain parts of the capital of New Delhi, which was more than three times the "hazardous" level.
While Ghaziabad is the worst city in the world for air quality, it is just ahead of the Chinese city of Hotan, which is at 110.1.
Other Indian cities Delhi, Noida, Gurgram, Greater Noida and Bandwhari all also featured among the top-ten worst in the world.
And all of those cities are within 40 kilometres of the capital, making the whole area heavily polluted.
Indian cities may have gotten worse in terms of their level of pollution, but air quality in Chinese cities has actually dramatically increased, with average concentrations of pollutants falling 9 per cent from 2018 to 2019, according to the report.
China's capital Beijing has more than halved its annual PM 2.5 levels over the past decade and has dropped out of the world's 200 most-polluted cities following concerted efforts to get air pollution under control.
However, 98 per cent of Chinese cities still exceeded WHO guidelines.
While India did have the most polluted cities, the country was only ranked the fifth-worst for air quality with an annual average rating of 58.08, coming in behind Bangladesh, which had a rating of 83.30 — easily the world's worst for air quality. Next highest was Pakistan (65.81), Mongolia (62) and Afghanistan (58.8).
Australia's air quality rating decreased overall in 2019, with pollution concentration rising from 6.82 to 8.0, but that was still within the WHO target range.
Armidale in northern NSW, where bushfires raged late in 2019, had Australia's worst average air quality for the year.
Canberra was at its worst on January 1, with a daily average PM2.5 concentration of 855.6, which was more than 34 times above the WHO guidelines.
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