The air pollution in the winter of 2018 caused great concern among the citizens. Images from applications such as Air Visual, which show that the air in Serbian cities is highly polluted and dangerous to health, have been widely shared via social networks, and the topic of air quality in Serbia, with many years of delay, has finally reached the public's attention.
Why is air quality so important?
Before we embark on a more detailed analysis of the report, it is not bad to remind ourselves why air pollution is an important topic and what are the main parameters that indicate what kind of air we breathe.
According to the World Health Organization, 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide are recorded annually as a result of external air pollution. Research by the same institution has shown that over 6,500 people in Serbia die every year due to air pollution.
The greatest damage to health is caused by particle pollution, which we monitor by measuring the concentration of small PM10 and PM2.5 particles in the air.
The number next to the abbreviation PM indicates the particle size: PM10 is 10 micrometers or less, PM2.5 is 2.5 micrometers or less. Because they are so small, when inhaled, these particles reach directly into our bloodstream through the pulmonary alveoli and cause damage to the lungs and heart, and can also lead to malignant diseases.
In addition to particulate pollution, the problem is also caused by pollution with certain gases, the most important of which are sulfur and nitrogen oxides.
The Environmental Protection Agency has published its Annual Report on the state of air quality in the Republic of Serbia for 2019, which gives a detailed overview of everything that was recorded by official measuring stations during 2018. These data are quite late.
What do the official data of the Agency for environmental protection say?
The report shows that during 2019, excessive particulate air pollution was recorded in almost all major urban areas, ie that the allowed annual limit values were exceeded.
Air quality was rated the worst third category in the largest cities in Serbia, such as Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Subotica, Valjevo, Uzice, Kraljevo, Smederevo, Zajecar, Bor and Pancevo.
Most days with excessive air pollution with PM10 particles were recorded at the measuring station in New Belgrade, as many as 169, while on average the highest concentrations of these pollutants were detected in Valjevo and Uzice, where in some days the pollution was 6 times higher than allowed.
In addition to particulate pollution, which is the main pollutant in cities in Serbia, a large amount of sulfur dioxide pollution has been registered in Bor.
The latest report also noticeably significantly improved air quality measurement. After only 22% of measuring instruments provided sufficient data availability in 2017, last year 85% of all measuring instruments met the necessary conditions for monitoring quality.
This is very important because data on the situation on the ground are necessary in order to be able to implement measures that will contribute to solving the problem of air pollution.
The air is clean only where there is no measurement
Although the report paints a rather bleak picture of air quality in the largest urban areas in Serbia, a large amount of pollution still goes unnoticed.
This report fully confirms that the air in Serbia is clean where particle pollution is not measured with the smallest particles.
This means that the graphic presentation from the report, which shows that the air of the highest quality is in the greater part of Serbia, does not reflect the real situation.
Unfortunately, the map showing the state of air quality, which is at the beginning of the Report, still confuses uninformed readers, and it is not good that the map shows cities in green, which are, in fact, black from pollution.
There live people who breathe bad air. People die there because they breathe bad air.
What does the future bring?
The citizens of Serbia have finally started demanding to breathe clean air.
There is a solution to this problem and many countries in the world have already successfully implemented measures that have enabled air quality to improve significantly, and the benefits of improving quality of life, reducing hospital costs and lost working hours due to illness outweigh the necessary investments.
Air quality measurement in Serbia must be significantly improved. When we know with greater reliability where the pollution comes from, concrete measures remain to be taken, such as subsidizing the purchase of quality heating fuel and new boilers and stoves for the poorest citizens and desulphurization plants in large thermal power plants.
Time is of the essence here, because every year that passes further impairs the health of our population.
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