A walk done evening Athens, bathed successful yellow light, will springiness the passerby pleasant moments… And lone the smoke surface spread crossed the metropolis will origin slight bewilderment. Fire? Arson? Protest? In this metropolis you tin expect anything. And lone then, aft a while, comes the close conjecture – fireplace smoke.
Despite the reasonably warm weather during the day, astatine nighttime the temperature drops to 5-7°C, and residents of Greece consciousness the request for heating. Excluding, of course, those who this year, purely for fiscal reasons, will enactment connected warmer socks and wrap themselves successful a woolen blanket. The rest, redeeming connected diesel fuel, vigor their houses with wood. Some lighting a occurrence successful a fireplace, some successful a potbelly stove.
Greek buildings, not adapted for the cold, are very thin and frost with the archetypal driblet successful temperature. Hence the aggravated heating. True, c compounds arsenic a combustion merchandise that flight into the ambiance are not astatine each useful. From below, the severity of polluted aerial is astir not felt, but astatine an altitude of 500-1000 meters, microscopic soot particles truly complicate the breathing process. Greek scientists are sounding the alarm, saying that successful operation with rain, combustion products make a truly suffocating atmosphere.
The mean regular level of PM 2.5 astatine the opening of January 2025 successful Athens is 10-15 μg/m3, with highest values up to 25 µg/m3which is 4 times higher than normal.
According to Nikos Michalopoulos, a researcher astatine the Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development astatine the Athens Observatory, the main sources of these particles travel from quality activities. “There is besides a portion that is people occurring, naturally, but astir of it comes from humans. Mostly it is combustion, for illustration successful industry, cars, utilizing solvents and so on.” Although the aerial successful Athens is not “crystal clean”, successful the lawsuit of microparticles the betterment is significant, and this is owed to three main reasons: “Firstly, the deindustrialization that has occurred successful Athens, that is, the information that ample industries person near and astir Athens has nary much vigor accumulation and concern activity. The 2nd crushed is each the projects that were done, for illustration the metro, and the third is that the aged αυτοκίνητο fleet has stopped moving and is being replaced by newer cars with little emissions.”
Despite the advancement made, a signifier persists of deteriorating aerial prime successful the winter months: “The large occupation successful Athens is still winter. In Athens successful the summer, arsenic we observe successful our measurements, the values drop beneath 10 µg/m3 and hover astir 9, which is considered 1 of the very bully values. A large occupation is winter, when the readings transcend 20 μg/m3. In fact, they are successful the scope of 20-25. µg/m3, chiefly owed to heating, particularly fireplaces.
Situation with NO2at a norm of 2 mg/m 3, in Athens it is regularly exceeded to levels of 72-100 mg/m 313-20 times higher than normal.
Fireplaces termination arsenic galore radical arsenic αυτοκίνητο exhaust. According to experts, the residents of Athens person been “thrown back” 30 years successful terms of aerial prime successful the metropolis. Smoke from fireplaces and wood stoves, arsenic well arsenic pollutants from vehicles, are mostly liable for an estimated 10,000 premature deaths a year successful Greece, according to an yearly study from the European Environment Agency. The Mediterranean state ranks 3rd successful Europe successful terms of the power of aerial contamination connected diabetes (60.7 YDL per 100,000 inhabitants) and 16th spot successful chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (35.5 YDL per 100,000 inhabitants).
According to the European Environment Agency environmentin 2021 successful 27 countries EU 500,000 radical died prematurely from aerial pollution. This was owed to vulnerability to good PM 2.5 particles that exceeded the World Health Organization's recommended level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
New information connected the interaction of aerial contamination connected the wellness of Greeks comes from the European Environment Agency's yearly report, which was published today. According to the study covering 2020, astir 8,800 radical died prematurely successful Greece owed to rising levels of particulate substance successful the atmosphere, astir 1,900 owed to rising nitrogen dioxide concentrations and 920 owed to excess ozone levels. The maximum values for these substances are 5 µg/m3 for suspended microparticles, 10 µg/m3 for nitrogen dioxide and 70 µg/m3 for ozone.
The main sources of aerial contamination successful municipality centers successful Greece are centrifugal vehicles and heating. “In winter, the astir important source is heating, namely the combustion of biomass, that is, fireplaces and stoves,” explains Nikos Michalopoulos, manager of the Institute of Environmental Research astatine the National Observatory of Athens. – This improvement appeared 15 years ago, astatine the opening of the fiscal crisis, and is still strong. Pollution from biomass burning has brought us backmost to contamination levels of 35 years ago, successful some cities comparable to Asian countries. I’m acrophobic that this year the situation will beryllium adjacent worse, since people, not having wealth to wage for substance oil, person again switched to firewood.”
According to the European Environment Agency environmentin 2021 successful 27 countries EU 500,000 radical died prematurely from aerial pollution. This was owed to vulnerability to good PM 2.5 particles that exceeded the World Health Organization's recommended level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
New information connected the interaction of aerial contamination connected the wellness of Greeks comes from the European Environment Agency's yearly report, which was published today. According to the study covering 2020, astir 8,800 radical died prematurely successful Greece owed to rising levels of particulate substance successful the atmosphere, astir 1,900 owed to rising nitrogen dioxide concentrations and 920 owed to excess ozone levels. The maximum values for these substances are 5 µg/m3 for suspended microparticles, 10 µg/m3 for nitrogen dioxide and 70 µg/m3 for ozone.
The main sources of aerial contamination successful municipality centers successful Greece are centrifugal vehicles and heating. “In winter, the astir important source is heating, namely the combustion of biomass, that is, fireplaces and stoves,” explains Nikos Michalopoulos, manager of the Institute of Environmental Research astatine the National Observatory of Athens. – This improvement appeared 15 years ago, astatine the opening of the fiscal crisis, and is still strong. Pollution from biomass burning has brought us backmost to contamination levels of 35 years ago, successful some cities comparable to Asian countries. I’m acrophobic that this year the situation will beryllium adjacent worse, since people, not having wealth to wage for substance oil, person again switched to firewood.”
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