Amnesty International has repeatedly raised the alarm over Lahore’s air after the global Air Quality Index (AQI) ranked the city’s pollutants at 484 micrograms/cubic metre(μg/m3), surpassing the ‘hazardous’ threshold by nearly 200 μg/m3 last autumn. At that level, people are recommended to avoid all physical activity outdoors.
The knock-on effects to public health have been dramatic, especially for the significant portion of workers who rely on selling manual, casual and domestic labour. Back in 2015, when the air pollution levels hadn’t yet peaked, the World Health Organization estimated that 60,000 Pakistanis had died from the high level of fine particles, one of the highest death tolls from air pollution.
