New criteria for air quality assessment: Until recently POLLUTED, is now ACCEPTABLE

The Environmental Protection Agency recently changed the criteria for assessing air quality in Serbia, thus air that has so far been evaluated as „polluted“ is now evaluated as „acceptable“, the Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and Environment (RERI) and Belgrade Open Schools said in a statement.

According to them, the criteria that can be found on Agency’s website today are different from those used in the environmental protection report published in September this year.

Thus, due to the shift of the upper threshold, air containing over 40 μg / m3 PM 2.5 particles is no longer „polluted“ but „acceptable“. Also, if the air contains 50,0001 μg / m3 nitrogen dioxide (NO2), it is now „excellent“ and not just „good“, they explain.

RERI and BOS pointed out the criteria for air quality assessment applied by the European Environment Agency (European Union agencies), which differ significantly from the criteria used by the Environmental Protection Agency, and to which Serbia is an associate state.

The two organizations also remind of the data of the World Health Organization, according to which premature death due to pollution affects 3,585 residents, of which half are the citizens of Belgrade.

Izvor: BIZLife

Foto: BIZLife