Zielona Góra air is more polluted than Berlin, Paris & London !

I know what you will say, this guy must be joking!!
I wish i was, actually i was as shocked as you dear reader, i said to myself how is this even possible, a small city of a population less than 150 000, can have an air quality worse than in big mega cities!
It made no sense at all, especially that Zielona Góra is located in the middle of Lubuskie, the department with the highest percentage of forests in Poland.
But stats are stats, and data indicate that indeed Zielona Góra air is pretty polluted! What annoys me most is that our city air is more polluted than Gorzów!

Here’s the Air Quality Data from today (table explaining these figure is at the end of the article):

 

When i first noticed this few day ago, the Air Quality Index of Zielona Góra was around 130 (unhealthy), at first i hesitated to write this article, then few days later, i checked the data again, the situation was much better, but still, air pollution level in Zielona Góra was higher than Berlin, Paris and London. Today, i finally had some time to finish the article, and as you can see, much better air quality, but again still more polluted than the 3 major capitals!

(It does not mean that these cities have always a better air quality than ZG, it simply means at the moment the data was observed it was the case, as you can see there are minimum and maximum values. But still it was worth writing this article to raise awarness.)

It might be a surprise for me and you, but that’s no surprise to government officials, especially that Greenpeace classify Poland as Europe most polluted country, and i quote from their article:

After ten years of extreme pollution that shows no sign of abating, the European Commission has told Poland to clean up its air or else it’ll be taken to the EU Court of Justice.

Poland’s air pollution causes around 43,000 premature deaths a year, but the government – beholden to fossil fuel interests – refuses to curb coal-fired emissions.

Cars and home furnaces produce the bulk of the country’s very visible PM10 pollution, but industry and energy are also significant contributors and even more so of the toxic particulate PM2.5.

Pollution from coal-fired power plants kills 5,300 people a year in Poland —  way more than in any other country in Europe.

So basically, that’s not a new situation, it’s something that have been persisting for years, and none of the major political parties dared to present it as an essential issue to solve, none of them even talked about it during election time …

We should take in consideration that we have cold winters, and that we have a poor population, and that a lot of families live thanks to the coal industry, but on the other hand 5,000 + person die every year due to this pollution! This should stop ASAP, and politicians should be held accountable!

I would appreciate if someone can help translate this to Polish, we need to raise awareness about this important issue.

 

The Air Quality Index Levels and the health implications:

AQI	Air Pollution Level	Health Implications	Cautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 – 50	Good	Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk	None
51 -100	Moderate	Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300	Very Unhealthy	Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+	Hazardous	Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects	Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion