The air pollution situation in Ukraine as of the morning of October 26 is quite contrasting – the concentration of pollutants in the cleanest and the most polluted cities differs almost tenfold.
This is evidenced by data from the international monitoring platform IQAir.
The morning air in Kyiv has a low level of pollution, so it is safe for city residents. The main pollutant is fine particulate matter PM2.5, with a concentration of 6 µg/m3. The World Health Organization standard for this indicator is 5.5 µg/m3.
Some monitoring stations installed in the capital record moderate pollution. In particular, the dust concentration is 11.9 µg/m3 on Sichovykh Striltsiv Street, 9.6 µg/m3 on Kakhovska Street, 9.8 µg/m3 on Reheneratorna Street and 13.3 µg/m3 on Vysotskoho Boulevard.
At the same time, moderate pollution is observed in the following cities:
- Zaporizhzhia – 20.4 µg/m3;
- Dnipro – 16 µg/m3;
- Mykolaiv – 14 µg/m3;
- Ivano-Frankivsk – 12.4 µg/m3;
- Kharkiv – 12.3 µg/m3;
- Chernihiv – 11.4 µg/m3;
- Lviv – 9.8 µg/m3.
In the rest of the regional centres, the air shows good quality as of the morning:
- Rivne – 8 µg/m3;
- Chernivtsi – 7.8 µg/m3;
- Ternopil – 7.6 µg/m3;
- Odesa – 6.3 µg/m3;
- Uzhhorod – 5.7 µg/m3;
- Vinnytsia – 4.6 µg/m3;
- Zhytomyr – 4.4 µg/m3;
- Kherson – 4.1 µg/m3;
- Cherkasy – 3 µg/m3;
- Lutsk – 3 µg/m3;
- Khmelnytskyi – 2.4 µg/m3;
- Poltava – 2.2 µg/m3.
As a reminder, air pollution directly affects the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and long-term exposure to certain substances can be carcinogenic. More on the relationship between the environment and health can be found in this article.
