Prague, July 20 (CTK) – More than 500 Praguers die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution with fine dust particles mainly produced by road vehicles, according to a study focusing on health risks that the organisers presented today.
Miroslav Suta, from the Centre for the Environment and Health NGO, told journalists that the most frequent cause of these deaths are cardiovascular diseases.
“Apart from early deaths, the Prague air pollution is also behind the hospitalisation of people with serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and an increased number of bronchitis patients and asthmatic symptoms among children,” Suta said.
He said the main source of fine dust are cars with a diesel engine, mainly those without a dust filter.
The situation is the worst at the Prague-Florenc central bus station where coaches are waiting with their engines running.
The city has set maximum possible dust particle limits, but they have been set politically, not based on expert opinions, and still they fail to be observed, Suta said.
In addition, the limits recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are tougher. They are set at 20 micrograms per square meter, compared with Prague’s 40 micrograms.
Last year, the Environment Ministry released its Programme of improving the air quality, but a group of Praguers has criticised it and even lodged a lawsuit against the ministry.
“Only the capital city or the state can take really effective measures, but nothing like this is happening in Prague,” one of the lawsuit’s initiators, a district town council opposition member Olga Richterova, said.
Suta mentioned the situation in Berlin where the air improved as a result of the introduction of law-emission zones. Prague has been discussing taking a similar step for seven years, he said.
In Stockholm, the number of cars in the town centre dropped by one fourth after entry fees were introduced.
The estimated numbers of early deaths have been annually released by the National Health Institute based on demographic figures and the average air pollution levels at various places in Prague.
For the year 2015, it estimated the number of Praguers’ early deaths at 520, and for the two preceding years at 700 and 800, respectively.
Nationwide, their number is estimated at up to 12,000 a year.
The WHO said the Czech Republic annually loses up to 8 percent of GDP as a result of dust-air pollution.
