Since Monday evening, Tashkent has been experiencing high air pollution levels, Uzhydromet said in a statement, and urged to take precautions: spend less time outdoors and wear masks.

Over the past 24 hours – from 9:00 AM on Monday to 9:00 AM on Tuesday – according to data from automatic air monitoring stations, the concentration of fine particulate matter PM2.5 (up to 2.5 micrometers in diameter) was 143 µg/m³. This is 2.4 times higher than the maximum permissible daily concentration (PDC) according to the national standard (60 µg/m³).

The average concentration of fine particulate matter PM10 (up to 10 micrometers in diameter) over the past 24 hours was 189 µg/m³, which did not exceed the PDC (300 µg/m³).

Also, the air is heavily polluted in Andijan – at 10:00 AM, the concentration of fine particulate matter PM2.5 was 314 µg/m³, which is 8.9 times higher than the average annual norm (35 µg/m³). Residents were also urged to wear masks outdoors.

Note: Since the evening of November 10, Uzhydromet has started publishing the average daily values ​​of PM2.5 and PM10 indicators for Tashkent (previously, only average annual values ​​were published). While the average annual permissible value for PM2.5 according to the national standard is 35 µg/m³, the average daily value is 60 µg/m³, and for PM10 – 500 and 300 µg/m³ respectively.

The maximum permissible levels of PM2.5 for Uzbekistan were approved by SanPiN 0053-23 in May 2024. These levels vary in different countries. The World Health Organization recommends that countries ensure that the average annual concentration of PM2.5 in the air does not exceed 5 µg/m³, the average daily concentration does not exceed 15 µg/m³, and the concentrations of PM10 do not exceed 15 and 45 µg/m³ respectively.