The Environment and Energy ministry warned Athenians on Wednesday not to use their fireplaces, or solid fuel and biomass stoves for the next three to five days, as weather conditions will favour the creation of smog.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service’s air pollution monitoring station network said it had recorded particularly high levels of PM-10 (particulate matter –microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in the atmosphere with a diameter of 10 microns), greater than 100 micrograms per cubic meter, raising the alarm for citizen’s health.
Air pollution levels have topped those set by the World Health Organization deemed safe – 50 milligrams per cubic meter of dangerous particles in the air. The professors warn of the long-term consequences the smog will have on people’s lives.
According to the ministry, the weather conditions in the next few days – no wind and thermal inversion – will favour the accumulation of pollution in the atmosphere.
The majority of the Greeks in Athens and other large cities have given up heating oil in favor of fireplaces, electric heaters, oil stoves, or worse: makeshift braziers that can become poisonous indoors and are not as effective in warming up an apartment.
This is having severe long-term consequences, experts warn. As more people burn whatever wood they can scrape up, including painted wood from furniture, it is creating dangerous levels of toxic fumes over Greece’s major cities.
The smog is a byproduct of biomass combustion and chemically treated wood which adds to emissions from a fleet of increasingly aging older technology vehicles, to create a toxic layer to the cities’ atmosphere and has a direct and lasting impact on health say experts.
ANA – MPA
Edited and additional material Y Xamonakis
