Of 11 tested cities in BiH yesterday, only in one city the quality of air was satisfying and not threatening for the health of citizens. The pollution measuring was conducted by the Association “Eko-akcija” from Sarajevo.

Jajce is the only city with a good quality of air. Moderate pollution was registered in Ugljević and Ćelić, unhealthy for sensitive groups in Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bosanski Brod, Prijedor and Zenica, and unhealthy in Lukavac and Goražde. These results are indicators of real state of pollution at eight o’clock in the morning, when the factories just start working and citizens start going to work by cars. If the measuring had been conducted at 5 p.m., the results would have been much worse.

Health workers explained that the air pollution affects health depending on the period of exposal and amounts to which one has been exposed.

“The consequences may be immediate, such as coughing, dyspnea, reduction in physical abilities, short-term infections of respiratory tract and eyes, or more dangerous ones that appear after a certain period of time, including bronchitis, asthma, metal poisoning and even tumors,” the health workers warned.

Čedomir Crnogorac, head of Cathedra for environmental protection at the Faculty of natural and mathematical sciences in Banja Luka and author of numerous works on this topic, said that these results are not surprising and that without a concrete strategy and real experts the situation may become even worse.

“We have spent too much time talking about what should be done, and doing nothing. Moreover, poorly trained staff employed through party connections are on responsible posts in this field, instead of experts that could certainly solve the problem,” Crnogorac believes. Crnogorac believes that the adoption of uniform and binding legislation on the state level must be a priority.

(Source: akta.ba)