Have you noticed the air you’ve been inhaling has been off, Victoria?
New research collected by HouseFresh, shows air pollution emitted by cigarettes is ten times greater than that of a diesel car exhaust, according to a controlled experiment reported by Tobacco Control.
Air quality varies significantly around the globe, and in many parts of the world, the negative health effects of poor air quality are equivalent to smoking hundreds of cigarettes a year.
In an effort to communicate the health risks of air pollution, HouseFresh calculated the number of cigarettes people around the world are indirectly smoking due to poor air quality.
By reviewing data on average particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) recorded by AQICN.org. The site converted the data to the equivalent number of cigarettes passively smoked per year in cities around the world.
On home soil, Victoria ranked 13th on the list of pollution inhaled, amounting to the equivalent of 86 cigarettes smoked per year.
Topping the list of the most toxic cities in Canada are Montreal (124 cigarettes), Windsor (123 cigarettes) and Hamilton, Ontario (116 cigarettes).
Although most cities have worse air pollution than rural areas, there are a few major cities along Canada’s coast where a lack of quality air has relatively little effect on respiratory health.
In Halifax, residents smoke the equivalent of 80 cigarettes a year due to poor air quality — far less than in most Canadian cities.
On a global scale, when it came to the cities with the most toxic air quality, the following five cities had startling numbers:
- Dhaka, Bangladesh (1,176 cigarettes)
- Baghdad, Iraq (1009 cigarettes)
- N’Djamena, Chad (909 cigarettes)
- New Delhi, India (894 cigarettes)
- Manama, Bahrain (796)
