Sarajevo to face a new air pollution season, expert says

“Those values are high but haven't yet reached the maximum which we expect in the coming period. They are unhealthy and will get even unhealthier, they will get higher as the temperature is getting lower and as the heating in December and January is more intense. That's what we expect every year,” said Enis Krenicic of the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For the past few years, the official measurements exposed Sarajevo as one of the most polluted capital cities in the region and Europe.

Although there was no official evidence to that, it was also speculated that the high concentrations of sulphur dioxide, was a trigger to serious health conditions such as lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases in the country.

The US Embassy in Sarajevo installed this year an air quality equipment on its compound to measure fine particulate matter as an indicator of air quality in the Sarajevo centre. The measurement results are being non-stop available at the official website of the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Now and on a twitter profile.

On October 19 the application showed the dramatic data where Sarajevo was neck and neck in the air quality with one of the most polluted cities in the world – Beijing.

https://twitter.com/USEmbassySJJ/status/1053334358508093441

According to Krecinic, this was not a news.

“The air pollution in Sarajevo is not something new and something our citizens would consider a news. That's something we have every year, and we will have it this year as well and it all depends on the winter, inversions and temperatures,” he explained.