Majority of the world’s population breathing dirty air says report

A sweeper cleans as smog envelops the area and reduces visibility in Lahore, Pakistan. File picture: AP

Most of the world has dirty air with just 17% of cities globally meeting World Health Organisation air pollution guidelines, according to a report.

Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir analysed data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations in 138 countries and found Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India had the dirtiest air.