{"id":5698,"date":"2022-08-12T11:38:17","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T10:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=5698"},"modified":"2024-06-20T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T20:40:16","slug":"air-pollution-in-ljubljana-above-guideline-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2022\/08\/12\/air-pollution-in-ljubljana-above-guideline-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution in Ljubljana above guideline value"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote c-bq-cred is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ostro.si\/si\/razkrinkavanje\/objave\/onesnazenost-zraka-v-ljubljani-vecja-od-priporocene\" data-type=\"URL\" target=\"_blank\">Original article<\/a> (in Slovenian) was published on 26\/07\/2022<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Slovenian Medical Chamber published on 11 July an open letter in which it expresses opposition to the construction of a waste-to-energy plant in Ljubljana, a project that was presented to the public by Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovi\u0107 on 6 July.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Medical Chamber stressed that the average concentration of hazardous PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> airborne particulate matter is already at least three times above the guideline value recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> is hazardous airborne particulate matter that causes coronary and respiratory diseases and cancer. In 2021 the WHO recommended that the average daily concentration of PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> should not exceed 15 micrograms per cubic meter (\u00b5g\/m3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between January and May this year Ljubljana recorded eight days on which the average concentration was three times above the guideline value, according to data by the National Environment Agency (ARSO). The highest recorded value was in the Be\u017eigrad borough in January, when it stood at 59 \u00b5g\/m3. In total, the average daily concentration exceeded the WHO guideline value 68 times until the end of May, according to ARSO data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the maximum daily concentration, the WHO also has a recommendation on the maximum annual concentration of PM<sub>2.5<\/sub>, which should not exceed 5 \u00b5g\/m3. In Ljubljana it was 15 \u00b5g\/m3 according to ARSO data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Medical Chamber told Razkrinkavanje.si that their claim about average daily PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> concentration in Ljubljana being three times above the WHO guideline value was based on data by the U.S. non-profit Berkeley Earth, which collects scientific data on the environment. According to this data, the average annual concentration of PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> last year was 14 \u00b5g\/m3. The organization states that the WHO guideline value is 10 \u00b5g\/m3, but this was true from 2005 until last year when the WHO reduced the guideline value to 5 \u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The claim by the Medical Chamber that the average concentration of hazardous and carcinogenic PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> particulate matter is already at least three times above the WHO guideline value is correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Air quality is among the worst in Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Medical Chamber also warned that air pollution in Ljubljana is among the worst in Europe. The European Environment Agency ranked Ljubljana 279th among 344 European cities in countries that are members of the Agency. The Agency ranked cities based on PM<sub>2.5<\/sub> concentrations in the two years preceding June 2021, from which it calculated average two-year concentrations. The average two-year concentration in Ljubljana was 15.7 \u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The European Environment Agency ranked cities in five categories by air quality, from good to very poor. Ljubljana ranked among the cities with poor air quality, the second to last category. The worst performers with the poorest air quality are cities where the average two-year concentration exceeds 25 \u00b5g\/m3. This is also the annual limit in the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the members of the Medical Chamber, construction of the waste-to-energy plant would worsen air quality in the city since hazardous substances from the smokestack would linger in the basin and accumulate in the center of the city in cold months with little wind. The Chamber also warned that the incineration of waste emits not just particulate matter but also heavy metals, carcinogenic dioxins, furans, and polycyclic hydrocarbons, which is why people in cities with waste-to-energy installations are more likely to get lymphatic, lung, and colon cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Chamber\u2019s claim that the air in Ljubljana is among the most polluted in Europe is not true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 26\/07\/2022 The Slovenian Medical Chamber published on 11 July an open letter in which it expresses opposition to the construction of a waste-to-energy plant in Ljubljana, a project that was presented to the public by Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovi\u0107 on 6 July. The Medical Chamber stressed that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[23,13,34],"class_list":["post-5698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-health","tag-journalism","tag-slovenia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5916,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698\/revisions\/5916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}