Air pollution: Turkey 46th out of 106 countries in PM 2.5 ranking

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Switzerland-based air quality company IQAir has published the 2020 World Air Pollution statistics.

In the report examining 106 countries, Turkey ranked 46th while it ranked 43th in the previous year.

The ranking is based on PM 2.5 per cubic meter, which was 18.7 for Turkey.

The city with the highest air pollution in Turkey was Çorum with 36 PM2.5 per cubic meter. It was followed by Erzurum and Düzce.

"More than 90 percent of the global population breathes dangerously high levels of air pollution," says the report. Due to its ubiquity and severity, air pollution constitutes the world's biggest environmental health hazard, contributing to as many as seven million premature deaths globally per year. Air pollution also burdens the global economy with more than $5 trillion in welfare losses."

"In 2020, the spread of Covid-19 raised new concerns, as exposure to particle pollution was found to increase vulnerability to the virus and its health impacts. Early reporting suggests that the proportion of Covid-19 deaths attributed to air pollution exposure ranges from 7 to 33 percent."

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(TP/VK)