Air pollution in the congested Bangladeshicapital Dhaka is causing 15,000 premature deaths and sickening several million people a year, a World Bank official has said. "We estimate that air pollution in Dhaka causes some 15,000 premature deaths and several million cases of sickness every year," World Bank country director Fred Temple told a seminar on Sunday. A recent World Bank-sponsored study showed that Dhaka's air during the November-January dry season contained one of the highest concentrations of lead in the world.