Poles, other Central Europeans continue to suffer in cold snap

The death toll from the recent spell of cold weather has increased to 61 deaths within the past nine days, and about one-third of those occurred in Poland, according to Wednesday Associated Press reports. In the southern Polish city of Rybnik, schools were closed for two days in order to protect children from the deadly fumes emanating from smog produced by coal-fired heating. Several cities, including Warsaw, offered free public transit on selected days in an attempt to mitigate the air pollution. The smog mainly emanated from substandard fuels such as coal mud, waste and plastic burned in poor quality heaters in private homes, air monitoring expert Barbara Toczko told The Associated Press. She said authorities should help residents acquire heaters which use clean fuel and have low-level emissions. She said traffic fumes and industrial smoke also contributed to the poor air quality but to a lesser extent as they had to meet European standards. Meanwhile, further south, Romanian, Serbian and Croatian authorities stopped river traffic along a 900-kilometer stretch of the Danube River due to the icy conditions. In Lesbos, Greece, authorities said they would move hundreds of refugees from their tents into motels, after aid agencies criticised their sleeping outdoors in the cold, snowy weather. The forecast in most regions calls for a moderation in temperatures (to more seasonal values) on Thursday and Friday.