World Air Quality Report 2022 finds only six countries met WHO guidelines for PM2.5

Following the 5th annual IQAir report, only Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand have met WHO's guideline for PM2.5. This is concerning as 126 other countries failed to meet this guideline, making one wonder what can be done to combat this.

Poor spread of air quality monitoring stations could suggest why information is not equally distributed. Despite there being 30,000 stations, 

Of that number, only 156 were in Africa. And of that number only one was in Chad – the most air polluted country in the world, with a reading of 89.7 µg/m3 – more than 17 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline."

The limited use of data is cause for concern among researchers because many countries, like Chad, are basically unaccounted for in reports. The majority of these countries that aren't included in this year's report also have a history of poor air quality. Specifically,

...only 19 out of 54 African countries had sufficient data available to be included in the report, leaving 35 unaccounted for."

With air quality continuing to become a huge concern for the health and safety of the world, proper distribution of air quality monitoring stations is extremely important, especially in those countries struggling the most.

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