COMMENT | An invisible killer hangs in the air of Asia's cities

COMMENT | Air pollution deaths increased by 150,000 in rapidly growing South and Southeast Asian cities.

Millions of people in cities in South and Southeast Asia face the threat of dying prematurely due to air pollution.

Eighteen cities in Asia’s tropical region are growing fast and are expected to be home to more than 10 million people each by 2100.

Most have limited to no routine ground monitoring of air pollution making it challenging to work out how bad the air has become resulting from this rapid expansion.

The challenges increase due to insufficient control of air pollution and inadequate funding for monitoring pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and ammonia that also form harmful fine particles (PM2.5).

The most hazardous pollutant of them all...