In brief
Lahore, facing an Air Quality Index over 1,000, has been deemed one of the world's most polluted cities, prompting authorities to close schools as a health measure.
In a decisive response to alarming pollution levels, primary schools in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, will halt classes for the week. This announcement follows a weekend where the Air Quality Index soared past 1,000, far exceeding the hazardous threshold of 301, according to reports from IQAir, a Swiss organization specializing in air quality monitoring.Education leaders in Punjab province declared that classes for students up to the fifth-grade would be suspended due to the extreme degradation of air quality. Students in higher grades will continue their education as normal. The severity of Lahore's situation was underscored by Ahmad Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer, who described the pollution as “an apocalypse," indicating that pollutant levels had reached extremes beyond classification.Due to its hazardous conditions, Lahore has recently become the world’s second-most polluted city, just behind New Delhi. This alarming trend marks a continuous issue for Pakistan, which consistently ranks among the nations suffering from the worst air quality globally. Experts highlight that air pollution has dire implications for public health, estimating that people residing in major Pakistani cities could lose approximately two years off their life expectancy due to poor air conditions.
