Pakistan regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted countries. Lahore often the most polluted megacity between November and February. Pollution is primarily caused by factory and traffic emissions. It worsens in winter as farmers burn crop stubble and cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds trap the deadly pollutants. But Pakistan has limited vehicle emissions standards, and officials admit 83 percent of Lahore’s carbon emissions are from transport. The government has pledged to increasingly enforce emissions regulations on tens of thousands of factories and more than 8,000 brick kilns, a major source of black carbon emissions. But environmentalists and experts say action has been piecemeal and sometimes counterproductive, including restrictions on private air quality monitoring devices that the government claims give \”misleading results that spread panic\” They say anti-smog machines, including a tower in Lahore shut down two months after installation, are effectively useless. The World Bank says 40 percent of Pakistan’s population lives in poverty, but the economic impact of clean air was too great for many to bear.