Mumbai's Air Quality to remain in the "poor" category for the next couple of days

It was a hazy Christmas for people of Mumbai as well as the air quality in the city again took a beating. Mumbaikars woke up to a smog-filled sky and the overall air quality on the day continued to be poor. According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the overall air quality of the city was recorded at 257, which calls under the “poor category

In the morning, recorded AQI of 240 and it continued to get worse as the day progressed. This was the worst since February. On February 10, Mumbai had recorded an AQI of 264. It is being said that the moisture-laden weather is said to be the reason for the bad air quality in the island city.  Safar is currently monitoring 10 locations in Mumbai and out of these 10, AQI of over 310 was recorded in places like Andheri, BKC, Worli, Mazgaon and Malad. BKC was the most polluted place with an AQI of 318, while Bhandup was cleanest with AQI of 175.

It is said that the air quality will continue to remain in the “poor” category in the coming two days.

Decoding the AQI parameters

• An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good"
• An AQI between 51-100 "satisfactory"
• An AQI between 101-200 "moderate"
• An AQI between 201-300 "poor"
• An AQI between 301-400 "very poor"
• An AQI between 401-500 "severe"
• An AQI above 500 is "severe-plus or emergency" category

The overall picture

This is not all, the concentration of PM-2.5 (particulate matter under 2.5 microns), which is said to be the lead pollutant, was recorded at 118 microgrammes per cubic metre. The safe limit for this is 60 microgrammes.

Even on December 22, Mumbai recorded Air Quality Index (AQI) of 208, which falls under the "poor" quality. Sunday was the second consecutive day, on which the air quality in Mumbai ranked in the ‘poor’ category.

A recent study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has revealed dangerous concentrations of PM10 in Mumbai’s air. This study was conducted among 24 peninsular cities of the country with Mumbai, unfortunately, ranking first.