According to the Swiss IQAir ranking of cities, which gives the value of pollution according to the US AQI index, which divides air quality into degrees from "good" to "life-threatening", the most polluted city in Europe is Orzesze in Silesia.

“The bad air quality in Orzesze is influenced by many factors. First of all, they are heating sources for buildings. The more old coal stoves that emit smog, the greater this problem will be. Our measurements show that even in towns with several dozen buildings, the air pollution peaks, especially in the morning and afternoon in winter, are very high. A few sources of gas emissions are enough for this. Orzesze is no exception, it just has a sensor that allows data analysis,” Agata Kańtoch-Kucab from Syngeos emphasized.

Many Polish cities have a similar problem to Orzesze. IQ Air indicates that high air pollution is recorded by Goczałkowice-Zdrój (14th place), Ksawerów (23rd), Racibórz (37th), Bielsko-Biała (38th), Zgierz (40th), Olbrachcice (44th) and Debica (49th). Kraków (63rd position) and Warsaw (91st position) also made it into the top 100.

“Our research on air quality shows that Poland still fares very badly compared to Europe. Of course, this is not just a problem for Poland, because the Czech Republic, Romania, and Bulgaria also have a problem with air pollution. However, when analyzing the map on a European scale, if there are smog days, the trend within the borders of our country for significantly exceeded standards is clearly greater,” Agata Kańtoch-Kucab added.

(Newseria)