Violeta Santos Moura reports from Poland, where air pollution claims some 45,000 lives annually. The country’s reliance on coal is the main culprit but it’s an issue bound up in national pride and political manipulation.
When worried Polish residents lament that ‘winter is coming’, it is not just the bitter cold they fear. It is the six months of smog caused by the mass burning of coal for domestic heating throughout the country.
Some areas have been measured to be more polluted than Beijing, with an estimated 45,000 deaths in Poland each year caused by air pollution. According to a report by the World Health Organization, the country claims 33 out of the 50 most polluted cities in the European Union.
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