UPINI, Poland (Reuters) – In 2018, the Tukaczuk family left the Polish city of Krakow for the clean air of the countryside and moved to the village at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains.
Four years later, this year, after the war in Ukraine cut off Russia’s supply of natural gas to Poland, local authorities postponed a ban on the most polluting obsolete stoves. Air pollution in the village reached four times the legal limit last month.
“It’s a disappointing feeling to be abandoned by the country. For me, every breath is a warning sign,” lamented Yulia Tukachuk, 38.
The situation is even worse in Krakow, Poland’s second largest city.
According to Airy, a California-based organization that tracks air pollution, on the night of November 20, when the temperature dropped below freezing for the first time this fall, Krakow’s PM2.5 concentration was the second highest in the world after New Delhi, India. The second highest came in
Poland, Germany, Hungary and many other European countries are increasing their use of the most polluting lignite to generate electricity, but experts say the biggest health risk is burning lignite at home.
Coal is the main source of heating in the Tukachuk region, with 40 per cent of households using old-fashioned stoves known as ‘smokers’. The name comes from the fact that it emits a poisonous smoke.
Piotr Kreczkowski, professor of environmental protection at Krakow’s AGH University, estimates that up to 1,500 premature deaths will occur this winter in the canton of Tukaczyk as the ban on such ovens is lifted.
Lignite contains several times more sulfur and ash and five times more mercury than coal, while producing only a third as much energy. Burning it at home releases a toxic combination of sulfur and mercury that increases the risk of asthma, lung cancer, heart failure and stroke.
Poland has long been one of the most polluted countries in Europe, and local governments have tried to tackle the use of toxic fuel in their homes.
But after Russia’s gas supply ended in April, the central government suspended a two-year-old ban on burning low-quality lignite and hard coal in homes. Restrictions on the sale of coal waste, which causes serious air pollution, have also been eased, returning to the situation before 2018 when coal-related regulations were removed to combat smog.
In September, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Kaczynski, told residents of Nowy Tark: “Everything should be burned except tires etc., because unfortunately this is the reality. There is simply no heat in Poland. necessary.”
Such policy changes are already causing respiratory problems in areas with high levels of air pollution, doctors say.
Children’s admissions increased in November when the temperature dropped at the state hospital in Rybnik, near the border with the Czech Republic, said Katarzyna Musior, head of the pediatric ward.
Airy’s data shows that on the night of November 20th, when the temperature dropped to minus 3 degrees Celsius, the average concentration of PM2.5 reached 6 times the normal level.
“As a result, the wards were filled with children, 90% of whom had symptoms triggered by the smog, such as shortness of breath, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), exacerbation of asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia. In some cases, babies in the first weeks of life have trouble breathing and RSV,” says Musior.
“Beyond the norm has become the norm. The smog has been heavy in recent days and many children are in intensive care.”
Around 80% of the coal used for heating homes in the European Union is consumed in Poland. Shortly after becoming the first EU member state to stop buying Russian coal in April, Poland began running out of coal.
Coal prices have quadrupled, and state-owned marketing companies have started rationing. Citizens began driving to the Czech Republic during the summer to buy lignite from Czech wholesalers, hoping to secure lignite for the winter.
Some households without access to coal resort to burning rubbish. According to Kreczkowski, the rubbish contains more carcinogenic toxins and local authorities find it difficult to stop burning it.
In October, a resident of northern Poland refused to be fined by the local police for burning rubbish from furniture. The resident claims that Law and Justice leader Kaczynski said he could burn anything. The lawsuit is pending.
(Reporters Marek Strzelecki, Kuba Stezycki)
