3rd Edition of Choice Option Magazine August 2014 | Page 11

Lifestyle

Top 20 most
Polluted Cities
in the World
By Edirin Okumagba

A

ir quality in most cities that monitor their
pollution levels exceed what the World
Health Organization deems as safe. Delhi
has the highest level of the airborne particulate
matter, PM2.5 considered most harmful to health,
with 153 micrograms. Not far behind is another
Indian city, Patna with 149 micrograms. These
figures are six times what the WHO considers a
"safe" limit which is 25 micrograms.

now worse than Beijing.
No Chinese cities ranked
in the top 20 most polluted
cities, despite thick, gray
smog filling its cities and
millions of residents commuting behind surgical masks. Beijing reported
56 micrograms of PM2.5. This year, Chinese leaders have declared "War on Pollution."

Half of the top 20 cities in the world with the
highest levels of PM2.5 were in India, according
to the pollution data released by the WHO, which
included 1,600 cities. Other cities with high levels
were located in Pakistan and Bangladesh. PM2.5
refers to the diameter measured in microns of
particulates such as ammonia, carbon, nitrates
and sulphate which are small enough to pass into
the bloodstream and cause diseases such as emphysema and cancer.

Beijing's emergency measures amid fog of
pollution. Delhi has been described as having
weak enforcement of pollution controls by India's
Centre for Science and Environment, a public
interest group. "Originally designed as compact
entities to reduce the length of travel ... (Indian
cities) are becoming victims of killer pollution,
congestion ... and a crippling car-dependent
infrastructure," according to the group.

The WHO data echoes an earlier study this year
which found that air pollution in New Delhi is

And the world's most polluted city is...
Air pollution has spread by increasing reliance on

Finding a house without the following would most
whenever feasible- walk to the store, take public
transportation. When you do drive, accelerate and
decelerate gradually to conserve fuel. Also, make
sure that your tires are properly inflated and that
the emissions system on your vehicle is well
maintained.

In Lagos, besides cutting particulate matter (in
the 10 micron diameter category) from 70 to 20
micrograms per cubic metre, says WHO, deaths
related to poor air quality can be reduced by
about 15 percent. Yet, the PM10 for Lagos is
estimated at 122.3 and the average for Nigeria
is 123.6! Lagos is facing large air pollution, but
astonishingly, it is not among the world’s Top 20
most polluted cities. Centre of this municipality is
almost always foggy.

House Hunting

H

ouse hunting can be a dreadful experience if gone about
wrongly, especially in an
environment such as ours, where most
things are hardly as it should be. Trust
me, I have been through it, wasn’t a
funny situation. In relation to housing context the word “suitable” can be
defined by the following factors; what
will the cost be, location and transport,
accessibility, most importantly “the
landlord”. It might take anyone a fairly
long while before they can overcome
these factors and gets a house that
could cut across these factors and give
them a certain level of suitability.

fossil fuels, coal-fired power plants, cars and the
use of biomass for cooking and heating, according
to Madison Park, CNN.

By Yusuf Bolaji

likely elongate your house hunting period, thereby
increasing the amount of cost you will incur if you are
new to the area;
What is Your Budget?
Before you step out into the scorching streets, it will be
very important to know how much you can comfortably
afford for any accommodation. This is very important
because you would love to avoid a situation where you
over spend on your accommodation and after moving
in, it takes a long haul on you to adapt due to shortage in cash to spend, not to forget you will still need to
furnish the apartment.
INSERT BUDGET PICTURE
What Is the Level of Housing Cost in the Area?
After visiting or calling various house letting signpost,
you would have a general idea of the amount housing
costs in that area, this would help guide you.
Location and Transportation
After the above, the following should be taken into

consideration; how far away is the property from your
place of work or study? How far away is it from family
and friends? How far away is the nearest supermarket
or hospital? How about other amenities, such as pubs,
a leisure centre, cinema or library? Is there enough
parking? Will your car be safe? The above are rational
considerations to make your life easier rather than making your house feel like a prison.
INSERT SUPERMARKET PICTURE
The Landlord
Do you feel intimidated by them? Would you feel
comfortable approaching them if anything went wrong?
And most importantly if your landlord is an active
member of the landlord association of the area, you
wouldn’t want a situation where the landlord is constantly at the receiving end of sanctions or left out of
communal benefits or worse still left out when situations that need collective effort arises.

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