Serbia has been ranked 1st in Europe and 9th in the world in terms of pollution, the Global Alliance for Health and Pollution (GAHP) said in its latest report.

The report said that 175 people per 100,000 die of the consequences of pollution in Serbia every year. The report said that in 2017, 12,317 people died of pollution-related causes, 9,902 of them because of air pollution, 1,366 of lead poisoning and 37 from polluted water.  

The head of Belgrade’s City Pulmonary diseases and Tuberculosis Institute Dejan Zujovic MD told Blic daily that pollution levels earlier this week in New Belgrade were “incompatible with life”, adding that the authorities should have banned all traffic from that part of the city. He warned that Serbia does not have any institution dealing with pollution.