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Albania, the 7th most polluted in Europe, rates three times above the WHO limit

Politiko 2024-03-20 07:37:01

Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to human health, causing one in nine deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is responsible for about 7 million premature deaths worldwide each year. Exposure to PM2.5 air pollution worsens many health conditions, including but not limited to asthma, cancer, stroke and lung disease.

In addition, exposure to high levels of fine particles can impair cognitive development in children, leading to mental health problems and complications of existing diseases, including diabetes, the 2023 Air Quality report said. compiled by IQAir, a Swiss organization that processes data collected from 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries around the world.

The study looked specifically at fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which is the smallest but also most dangerous pollutant. Only 9% of the 7,812 cities surveyed met the WHO standard, which states that annual average PM2.5 levels should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter. These include Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand.

"We see that in every part of our lives air pollution has an impact," said IQAir Global CEO Frank Hammes.

How is Albania positioned?

The air we breathe every day is getting worse year by year, according to the report. Our country ranks seventh in Europe for the high level of air pollution, while it ranks 60th in the world. The average annual concentration of PM2.5 is 16.7, exceeding three times the limit set by WHO. Even the countries of the region are not presented better, unfortunately. Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia lead the list as the most polluted countries in Europe. Kosovo is ranked 17th. In the ranking of the capitals for the level of air pollution, Tirana is in the 51st place in the world, after Skopje and Podgorica, respectively in the 30th and 36th places. The European region includes 2006 cities from 43 countries.

Despite a slight increase in annual average PM2.5 levels, Iceland remains the least polluted country with an average concentration of 4 µg/m3. Bosnia and Herzegovina saw an 18% decrease in PM2.5 levels in 2023 compared to 2022, but remains the most polluted country in Europe, reporting an average annual concentration of 27.5 µg/m3. In a recurring trend from 2022, Iceland, Estonia and Finland are the only countries in the region to reach the annual WHO PM2.5 guideline level. Croatia showed the most progress in 2023 in reducing PM2.5 levels with the annual average falling by more than 40% compared to 2022.

Montenegro experienced the largest absolute increase in PM2.5 concentrations with annual levels increasing by more than 4 µg/m3 in 2023 for an annual average of 20 µg/m3. Annual average PM2.5 levels decreased in 2023 for 36 countries in the region, increased for six countries, and remained constant for one country. In 2023, 7% (135) of cities in the region reached the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline of 5 µg/m3, including every city in Iceland.

Globally Begusarai, a city of half a million people in the northern Indian state of Bihar, was the most polluted city in the world last year with an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 – 23 times the WHO guidelines . It was followed in the IQAir ranking by the Indian cities of Guwahati, Assam; Delhi; and Mullanpur, Punjab./ Monitor