The World Health Organization has revised its air quality guidelines on Wednesday for the first time in 16 years, making the safety standards more stringent. 

Delhi’s annual PM 2.5 average for last year now stands at around 17 times the new WHO safe annual standard. The revised guidelines make it difficult for Delhi to meet the global standards. Experts wish for a revision of the Indian standards for PM 2.5 as well, which is 8 times the annual WHO limit at 40 micrograms per cubic metre. WHO has updated the safe limit for PM 2.5 to 5 micrograms per cubic metre from the 10 micrograms and revised the annual mean for PM 10 to 15 micrograms per cubic metre against the previous 20 micrograms standard. The NO2 standard has also seen a strict reduction from the annual 40 micrograms per cubic metre to 10 micrograms.

An analysis by Greenpeace India of PM 2.5 data has suggested that at least 79 of the 100 most populous cities in the world breached the outgoing WHO annual mean PM 2.5 guideline last year.

According to the Greenpeace data, Delhi’s mean average PM 2.5 for 2020 was 87 micrograms per cubic metre, and surpassed the earlier WHO guidelines by around eight times. With the revised guidelines, the city’s figure becomes around 17 times the global limit. Mumbai exceeds the standard by 8 times, Kolkata by 9.4 times, Chennai by 5.4, Hyderabad by 7 times and Ahmedabad by 9.8 times.

When premature deaths and financial losses due to air pollution were estimated for Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, New York, Istanbul, Bangkok, London and Johannesburg, Delhi was found to have the maximum number of premature deaths last year at 57,000.

According to Avinash Chanchal, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace India, the revised WHO air quality guidelines emphasize that there is no safe level of air pollution.

Source: ET Healthworld