Macedonia's Greens See Red Over Deadly Smog

A coalition of 21 environmentalist groups and NGOs from across Macedonia is considering more protest marches as well as possible blockades of institutions and streets during February.

They accuse the authorities of failing to take relevant action against extremely high levels of air pollution in the capital and in several other towns.

"More protest marches and maybe blockades will surely follow by the end of February because it is obvious that previous protests had very little if any effect," Nevena Smilevska, a project coordinator at Eko-Svest, an NGO, told BIRN.

Eko-Svest is one of the 21 organizations that form part of an informal coalition against air pollution, which staged a series of protests in November and December that gathered thousands of people in Skopje, Tetovo and Bitola. One was held in front of the government building.

To show that it is taking the fight against air pollution seriously, the government in December issued a set of "recommendations" to state institutions and private firms, including exempting the sick, elderly persons and pregnant women from work.

Commuters were advised to use public transport and to carpool to combat pollution coming from traffic.

"While the urgent measures we proposed have not been implemented at all, government institutions failed to implement even the government's own instructions," Smilevska said.

In the last couple of months, the Ministry of Health had been recording levels from 180 to over 1,000 micrometers of cancerous PM 10 particles per cubic meter of air in parts of Skopje and in the towns of Tetovo and Bitola. 

This is between four and 20 times the maximum accepted level of 50.

PM10 particles are small breathable specks that...