Current Affairs New figures show dramatic rise in air pollution with dust particles main culprit
It improved dramatically after the fall of Communism, so why is the quality of the air suddenly getting worse? A new study carried out by the Environment Ministry's department of air protection suggests that in 2005 around two thirds of the Czech population lived in areas with serious air pollution, opposed to just a third in the previous year.
Photo: European Commission
Even the director of the air protection department, Jan Kuzel, expressed
his profound shock when he saw the new figures. Stricter regulations are
partly responsible for the rise, but that's only part of the story. Air
quality, it seems, really has deteriorated sharply in many areas of the
Czech Republic.
Improving air quality was one of the greatest achievements of the post-communist era. Gone were the smokestack factories belching out poisonous fumes, reined in by stricter regulations on industrial emissions such as sulphur and nitrogen. That played a major role in improving air quality across the Czech Republic.
What's happening now, however, is that with rising gas and electricity
prices, people are turning increasingly to cheaper, less environmentally
friendly methods of heating their homes. They're going back to burning
coal and even rubbish. That is releasing a huge number of dust particles
into the air. The consequences of this can be felt across the country, not
only in big industrial cities.
Another problem is more exhaust fumes from cars, thanks to the leap in car ownership since 1989. But even the cars have got cleaner, and exhaust pollution still comes a poor second after dust.
Some of the dust particles are carcinogenic. People are far more at risk
from various cancers, especially lung cancer, as microscopic particles
enter the lungs easily. But air pollution also causes other problems, such
as asthma and women giving birth to underweight babies, which causes more
health problems later in life.
As an EU member the Czech Republic has to meet certain norms for air
quality. Last year it failed to do so, and will probably fail again this
year too. The EU's strict regulations say the daily limit for microscopic
dust particles must not be exceeded more than 35 times per year. In around
half of the locations measured by the Environment Ministry, the limit has
already been exceeded 67 times so far this year. And in industrial centres
in northern Moravia, for example, the limit has already been exceeded well
over 100 times.
