Macedonia tops the list as the most polluted country in Europe, according to data from map of the European Environment Agency, which tracks the air quality index in European countries.
According to this data, Macedonia is in the worst category when it comes to concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 particles, with extremely high air pollution.
Measured PM2.5 concentrations in the country are several times above the maximum permitted limit of 25 micrograms per cubic meter, posing a serious health risk to the population. These particles are among the most dangerous pollutants, as they easily penetrate deep into people’s lungs and bloodstream.
Although Macedonia ranked 59th out of 180 countries in the world according to the Environmental Performance Index last year, the air quality situation remains worrying. According to the air pollution ranking, the country was only 128th, which shows a serious gap between formal environmental policies and the real situation on the ground.
Particulate pollution in the country stems mainly from the burning of oil, oil derivatives and coal, says Professor Trajche Stafilov from the Institute of Chemistry. According to him, these sources are among the main factors for high concentrations of PM particles in the air, especially in winter.
“Since 2002, every five years we have conducted research on air pollution, especially in regions where there is historical industrial pollution through biomonitoring with mosses by taking samples from the same places to follow trends. The presence of cadmium, lead, zinc, which are the result of the work of the Veles Smelter, mines in the eastern part of the country, Jugohrom and Makstil, is being examined. We can confirm that the pollution we noticed at the beginning of the research was also present in 2020. We took samples this year and are currently analyzing them, but we do not expect major changes,” Stafilov said at a scientific forum organized by the Ecological Society of Macedonia.