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DW (English)
  • 2/16/2024
Residents of the Serbian capital Belgrade breathe some of the worst air in Europe. The air pollution is so bad that it's visible to the naked eye — especially in winter. Poor air quality has cost thousands of lives in the country already.

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Transcript
00:00 It's early morning in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
00:07 The air quality is poor, so much so that the pollution can actually be seen with the naked eye.
00:14 Nothing new, says climate expert Vladimir Djudjevic.
00:22 He has been warning the people of Belgrade about the city's air pollution problem for years.
00:28 What people see in the atmosphere is not fog, he says, but smog.
00:56 From November to March, coal-fired thermal power plants operate at full capacity in Serbia's capital.
01:03 Many people still use fires to heat their homes, which is why air quality in the city deteriorates in winter.
01:10 The situation is made worse by the number of old vehicles on the roads emitting dangerous fumes,
01:16 and the industrial facilities around the city.
01:19 When we look at Europe as a continent, Belgrade is one of the most polluted cities in Europe.
01:27 According to recent research, air pollution caused almost 15,000 premature deaths in Serbia in 2021 alone.
01:36 Physician Tatjana Radovanovic has been studying the consequences of excessive pollution on human health for years.
01:43 She points out that air pollution causes many diseases. Children are particularly at risk.
01:49 Some studies show that in 2050, one in two children could suffer from asthma.
01:57 Air pollution consists of various components.
02:01 It is caused by gases that are respiratory irritants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide,
02:09 which in the presence of fog or moisture can make strong acids such as sulfur and nitric acid,
02:15 which can also have a negative effect on the health of the lungs.
02:19 But what is even more dangerous are the so-called PM2.5 and PM10 particles.
02:25 Why are they dangerous?
02:27 Because they are very small and when we inhale them, they pass through the lungs,
02:32 enter the smallest parts of the lungs, pass into the blood and practically spread throughout the entire body.
02:39 Dejan Lekic from the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency created an app that provides real-time information on air quality.
02:54 The colors on the screen that are dominant show that the air in Belgrade at this moment is bad,
03:01 extremely bad or very bad in most cases.
03:05 Serbia's government has responded to the situation by adopting its Air Protection Programme 2030.
03:12 This includes a series of measures such as making factories greener and gradually taking older vehicles off the road.
03:20 Air pollution, officials say, should be halved by 2030. But is this realistic?
03:45 While Belgrade's efforts to become a greener city all sound good on paper,
03:50 many locals doubt that a stroll in the park will mean breathing cleaner air any time soon.
03:57 For more information, visit www.srb.org
04:02 Thank you for watching!
04:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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