Poland’s Public Tries to Clear the Air

Tomasz Klech, who heads the air-monitoring lab at the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection (GIOS) in Warsaw. Photo: Maria Wilczek A very Polish smog

Poland has the EU's worst air, according to a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in November. While Balkan countries score worse in terms of average years of life lost across reports, Poland leads the way in its wider geographical spread.

Poland's smog is mainly caused by its legacy of burning cheap fuels to heat homes. The problem is most acute during the winter, when temperatures drop and chimney fumes envelope residential areas. This year's peak pollution on January 18 coincided with a temperature drop below -20° Celsius, when the Polish city of Wroclaw briefly had the world's worst air, according to IQAir's ranking.

The result is a unique toxic cocktail. "Poland's is dusty smog," Professor Grzegorz Wielgosinski, who heads the environmental engineering department at the Lodz University of Technology, explains. It contains a lower concentration of sulphur dioxide than in the famous London smog episode of 1952, but more carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene and heavy metal dust.

These grains of matter, no larger than 10 micrometres, can enter the lungs and bloodstream. The bad air causes an estimated 45,000 premature deaths in Poland each year. In October, a study found that children in the southern city of Rybnik had on average four times more harmful substances from burning fuels in them than counterparts in Strasbourg in France.

Unlike London's foggy sheets on days of low atmospheric pressure or the tawny smears in the peak of summer in Los Angeles, smog in Poland occurs with high-atmospheric pressure and little wind. "It is even worse on...

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