Israel among lowest air polluters in western Asia, Swiss research finds
Out of all the countries in the region, Israel ranked just behind the country of Georgia in terms of air pollution quality and dominated the least populated regional cities list.
Israel was rated as having some of the lowest air pollution rates in the West Asia region, with several of its cities topping the top 15 least polluted regional cities list, according to an annual global survey by Swiss air purifier maker IQAir.
Out of all the countries in the region, Israel ranked just behind the country of Georgia in terms of air pollution quality.
But Israel was also ranked positively in terms of its cities.
That list was as follows
- Be'er Ora, Israel
- Batumi, Georgia
- Nesher, Israel
- Kfar Menahem, Israel
- Sde Yoav, Israel
- Gan Yavne, Israel
- Erez, Israel
- Mavki'im, Israel
- Kiryat Shemone, Israel
- Tiblisi, Georgia
- Ashdod, Israel
- Karmia, Israel
- Ein Tamar, Israel
- Yad Binyamin, Israel
- Haifa, Israel
Worldwide, Israel was ranked 53 in terms of air pollution severity, with Tel Aviv ranking 46 on a list of air pollution in capital cities – since IQAir doesn't consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.
Air pollution quality in the Middle East according to IQAir
Israel stands out among countries in the West Asia region for having the highest amount of cities with the proper monitors surveying the air quality, with 52 cities monitored in total.
By contrast, the city with the most monitors in the region is Dubai in the UAE.
Dubai is also ranked as the ninth most polluted regional city – a list topped by Baghdad in Iraq, followed by Manama in Bahrain.
It should be noted that despite these rankings, the air quality in the region isn't exactly perfect, with the country with the lowest level of pollution – Georgia – still being three times above World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
In fact, there were certain factors in the region that made air pollution worse. Aside from vehicles, construction, fossil fuels and waste burning, a major source of natural air pollution is dust storms. A series of dust storms in May 2022 caused massive amounts of pollutants to spread throughout the region.
Worldwide, the most polluted country was Chad in Africa, followed by Iraq. The most polluted city is Lahore in Pakistan.
IQAir measures air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM2.5. Its annual survey is widely cited by researchers and government organizations.
The WHO recommends a maximum PM2.5 concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
The US Pacific territory Guam had cleaner air than any country, with a PM2.5 concentration of 1.3, while Canberra had the cleanest air for a capital city, with 2.8.
The index was prepared using data from more than 30,000 air quality monitors in more than 7,300 locations in 131 countries, territories and regions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The Environment and Climate Change portal is produced in cooperation with the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Jerusalem Post maintains all editorial decisions related to the content.
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