A Ranking Of Canadian Cities' Air Quality Is Out & Montreal (Cough) Did Not Do (Hack) Well

If you live in Montreal, chances are you've walked through a cloud or two of cigarette smoke. Whether that's a pleasant experience or not is up to you, but either way, it's causing some level of damage to your lungs. But directly inhaling secondhand smoke isn't the only way your lungs are at risk in the metropolis, as shown by an air quality study from HouseFresh, which found Montreal to be the worst city in Canada in terms of air quality.

Breathing in city air is often dealing unseen damage to your lungs, but it's much easier to visualize that damage when it's converted into a silly little metric like cigarettes smoked per year. HouseFresh's study used an equation from Berkeley Earth to convert confusing air quality numbers into digestible cigarette numbers, and it does NOT look good for Montreal.

Montrealers inhale the equivalent of 124 cigarettes a year, according to the study. Add a few extra to account for those sneaky drunk ciggies, and you've got a portrait of some unhappy lungs.

Although the study measured air quality in terms of cigarettes, most of Montreal's poor air quality actually comes from other sources, especially in winter. During the colder months, smoke from domestic wood-burning stoves and fireplaces contributes significantly to poor air quality, according to the city.

Of the other top Canadian cities ranked on having poor air quality, the majority are in Ontario, including Toronto, whose air quality is 20 cigarettes better than Montreal's at 104 cigarettes.

These numbers sound quite high, but it's worth taking a look, for comparison, at the worst city in the world in terms of air quality. Dhaka, Bangladesh, takes that crown, with residents breathing in the equivalent of 1,176 cigarettes each year.

In the grand scheme of things, 124 is actually not too awful!

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.