Particulates

Air pollution on the islands is at low levels compared to mainland Greece.

Smoke from the forest fires burning in Greece has spread across most of the Eastern Mediterranean, with the National Observatory of Athens' Meteo meteorological service reporting that the Thrace blazes in particular are releasing enormous volumes of microparticles that have now made their way to Malta and southern Italy.

Air pollution due to smoke from fireplaces in Athens was significantly higher over the festive period, especially from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. 

Despite unseasonably high temperatures, many fireplaces in the capital were used, sounding the alarm as to what could happen in the event of a harsh winter. 

Copenhagen – Slovenia’s capital has placed 279th among 344 European cities in the European city air quality viewer with its air quality categorised as poor. Maribor ranks 207th having moderately clean air.

The latest analysis, compiled by Bankwatch, released this week, shows that fine dust, PM2.5, concentrations alone are responsible for up to 8.43 per cent of all deaths among adults in the nearby village of Novaci.

This means that in this small, sparsely populated municipality, up to 6 people die prematurely every year due to PM2.5 pollution.

The majority of people in European cities live among unhealthy levels of air pollution, despite improvements over the past two decades and declining emissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was announced by the European Environment Agency (EEA), quoted by Reuters.

Delhi shut down schools until further notice, urged people to work from home and banned non-essential trucks from entering the Indian capital due to dangerous levels of air pollution.

One of the world's most polluted cities and home to some 20 million people, Delhi is cloaked every winter in a thick blanket of smog.

Air pollution caused a total of 44,617 premature deaths in 2018 in Turkey, recent research has shown.

Most fatalities due to prolonged exposure to the airborne PM2.5, known as particulate matter, occurred in the provinces of Iğdır, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin, Manisa, Niğde and Burdur, said Professor Kayıhan Pala from the Uludağ University's Medical School who led the study.

Turkey's Çorum and Erzurum were among the top 10 cities of Europe with the most polluted air, according to a report, while Turkey ranks as the 46th country in the world list with an average particle rate of 18.70 per cubic meter.

The measurements carried out at the stations in Heraklion, Chania and Finokalia Lassithi, in the framework of the cooperation of the University of Crete with the Region, provide data on the air pollution caused by the extensive fires in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean.