In the latest ranking released by the Polish Smog Alarm, one can find record-breaking smog levels dating back to 2015. The leader is Nowa Ruda in Lower Silesia, which won in all three categories in 2022. Interestingly, it also triumphed in all three categories in 2021. The ranking also includes Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. This is a town in Warmia and Mazury that does not even have an anti-smog resolution. The authorities and residents of this region believe they live in a very clean environment. However, it turns out that Nowe Miasto Lubawskie – which received a new monitoring station from the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection – immediately found itself in the top ten of the ranking. What does this suggest about Warmia and Mazury? Likely, there are not too many clean locations in this region. Those that are there, just don’t have a monitoring station yet.
“In our first ranking, in 2014, Krakow was the fifth most polluted city in the country. In the latest 2022 ranking, Krakow is in 37th place,” Piotr Siergiej, a spokesperson for the Polish Smog Alarm told eNewsroom.pl. “Why so? The answer is simple. Since 2019, Krakow has been a no-smoke zone. There’s a ban on burning coal and wood. Hence, Krakow’s drop in the smog rankings is absolutely spectacular. It’s a tremendous change for the residents of Krakow even though around Krakow, 14 thousand chimneys still billow smoke, which is trapped within the Krakow ‘bagel’. Positioned higher, Krakow each winter bears the brunt of this smoke that flows into the city. An interesting fact is that for the first time in the history of our rankings and measurements, none of the cities measured exceeded the border value of average annual PM10 suspended dust. So, in terms of annual concentration, no cities in Poland in 2022 reached critical levels of air pollution. This is the good news,” Siergiej assessed.
