*Air pollution kills an estimated ten million people each year. But it does much more than that.*
*Here is just a partial list of the things, short of death rates, we know are affected by air pollution:*
*Cognitive performance, with a study showing that cutting Chinese pollution to the standards required in the US would improve the average student’s ranking in verbal tests by 26 per cent and in maths by 13 per cent.*
*In Los Angeles, after $700 air purifiers were installed in schools, student performance improved almost as much as it would if class sizes were reduced by a third.*
*Heart disease is more common in polluted air, as are many types of cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory diseases like asthma, and strokes. The incidence of Alzheimer’s can triple.*
*Rates of other sorts of dementia increase too, as does Parkinson’s. Air pollution has also been linked to mental illness of all kinds, with a recent paper showing that even small increases in local pollution raise the need for treatment by a third, and to worse memory, attention and vocabulary, as well as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.*
*Pollution has been shown to damage the development of neurons in the brain, and proximity to a coal plant can deform a baby’s DNA in the womb. It accelerates the degeneration of the eyesight.*
*The relationship of pollution to premature births and low birth weight is so strong that the introduction of t E-ZPass reduced both problems in areas close to toll plazas (by 10.8 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively), by cutting down on the exhaust expelled by idling cars. Women breathing exhaust fumes during pregnancy gave birth to children with higher rates of paediatric leukaemia, kidney cancer, eye tumours and malignancies in the ovaries and testes. Infant death rates increased in line with pollution levels, as did heart malformations.*
*In 2019, a comprehensive global review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies found that air pollution damages every organ, indeed virtually every cell, in the body. Nanoparticles of pollution have been found inside the brainstems of even the very young.*
Why is southern Poland so terrible?
How can whole Poland be so bad? Isn’t there a lot of countryside too?
Wow, Poland’s being exceptional in something at least once.
There is no air in Germany
I suspect the picture is highly misleading, because from the look of it, Poland and Benelux countries are packed with sensors, while in some countries the number of sensors is literally just a handful across their entire territory showing lone red/orange dot at larger cities.
Polen can into lung disease
sheesh! poland needs dat clean air STAT
Polska stronk!
That awkward moment when you live near the Polish borders
Sorry guys, we are busy burning witches.
Miracle on Polish-German border.
I’m starting to wonder **who** gains from all these anti-Poland recent posts on Reddit, so let’s try to be a bit more fair to all and use sensor readings that are more available throughout Europe (though with the remark that not all countries have the same distribution of sensors…):
If the data from are from sensors, then the actual sensor location could have huge affect on the measured value (city park vs busy crossroad).
The beauty of internet is that you can always find sources to support your opinions and I just found an article about [nitrogen dioxide levels based on satellite data](https://www.gislounge.com/monitoring-air-pollution-sentinel-5p/).
It seems that besides Silesian coal basin, Po valley and Western Europe are pretty polluted as well.
What is the red dot in Norway?
I think I can see my fart!
Germany seems to forget that they need energy.
My bad, that single dot in Northumberland was me driving around in too low a gear
People trust this stupid maps and charts so blindly.
I live in this dark red dots in Poland and I like it 🙂
The brapper of Europe
Thought Holland had better air than all Europe
Netherlands with all their bicycles doesn’t amount for all the cheese farts.
That’s probably what the energy independence smells like.
Polish farts
Live in Hull, UK and there was a giant fire in a plastic factory yesterday sending smoke all across the city. Glad to see we’ve been given the all clear though (!)
Greeting from Poland. We have nice air in there, you just need to chow it well.
Cyprus good, Syria worse.
No data in Germany… Weird… Haha 🙂
Automobile industry lobbying at work in germany 🙂
if you dont know how bad the air is, there is no reason to ban cars from anywhere 🙂
they probably downgraded on the number of stations as well after the VW diesel scandal. many cities wanted to impose a diesel ban back then because of the carbon-monoxides
Ouch. That can’t be good for my asthma.
That’s near the Tatras, correct? Such a beautiful place to be desecrated by such awful pollution.
34 comments
Live: https://airly.org/map/en/
*Air pollution kills an estimated ten million people each year. But it does much more than that.*
*Here is just a partial list of the things, short of death rates, we know are affected by air pollution:*
*Cognitive performance, with a study showing that cutting Chinese pollution to the standards required in the US would improve the average student’s ranking in verbal tests by 26 per cent and in maths by 13 per cent.*
*In Los Angeles, after $700 air purifiers were installed in schools, student performance improved almost as much as it would if class sizes were reduced by a third.*
*Heart disease is more common in polluted air, as are many types of cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory diseases like asthma, and strokes. The incidence of Alzheimer’s can triple.*
*Rates of other sorts of dementia increase too, as does Parkinson’s. Air pollution has also been linked to mental illness of all kinds, with a recent paper showing that even small increases in local pollution raise the need for treatment by a third, and to worse memory, attention and vocabulary, as well as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.*
*Pollution has been shown to damage the development of neurons in the brain, and proximity to a coal plant can deform a baby’s DNA in the womb. It accelerates the degeneration of the eyesight.*
*The relationship of pollution to premature births and low birth weight is so strong that the introduction of t E-ZPass reduced both problems in areas close to toll plazas (by 10.8 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively), by cutting down on the exhaust expelled by idling cars. Women breathing exhaust fumes during pregnancy gave birth to children with higher rates of paediatric leukaemia, kidney cancer, eye tumours and malignancies in the ovaries and testes. Infant death rates increased in line with pollution levels, as did heart malformations.*
*In 2019, a comprehensive global review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies found that air pollution damages every organ, indeed virtually every cell, in the body. Nanoparticles of pollution have been found inside the brainstems of even the very young.*
Why is southern Poland so terrible?
How can whole Poland be so bad? Isn’t there a lot of countryside too?
Wow, Poland’s being exceptional in something at least once.
There is no air in Germany
I suspect the picture is highly misleading, because from the look of it, Poland and Benelux countries are packed with sensors, while in some countries the number of sensors is literally just a handful across their entire territory showing lone red/orange dot at larger cities.
Polen can into lung disease
sheesh! poland needs dat clean air STAT
Polska stronk!
That awkward moment when you live near the Polish borders
Sorry guys, we are busy burning witches.
Miracle on Polish-German border.
I’m starting to wonder **who** gains from all these anti-Poland recent posts on Reddit, so let’s try to be a bit more fair to all and use sensor readings that are more available throughout Europe (though with the remark that not all countries have the same distribution of sensors…):
https://aqicn.org/map/europe/
If the data from are from sensors, then the actual sensor location could have huge affect on the measured value (city park vs busy crossroad).
The beauty of internet is that you can always find sources to support your opinions and I just found an article about [nitrogen dioxide levels based on satellite data](https://www.gislounge.com/monitoring-air-pollution-sentinel-5p/).
It seems that besides Silesian coal basin, Po valley and Western Europe are pretty polluted as well.
What is the red dot in Norway?
I think I can see my fart!
Germany seems to forget that they need energy.
My bad, that single dot in Northumberland was me driving around in too low a gear
People trust this stupid maps and charts so blindly.
I live in this dark red dots in Poland and I like it 🙂
The brapper of Europe
Thought Holland had better air than all Europe
Netherlands with all their bicycles doesn’t amount for all the cheese farts.
That’s probably what the energy independence smells like.
Polish farts
Live in Hull, UK and there was a giant fire in a plastic factory yesterday sending smoke all across the city. Glad to see we’ve been given the all clear though (!)
Greeting from Poland. We have nice air in there, you just need to chow it well.
Cyprus good, Syria worse.
No data in Germany… Weird… Haha 🙂
Automobile industry lobbying at work in germany 🙂
if you dont know how bad the air is, there is no reason to ban cars from anywhere 🙂
they probably downgraded on the number of stations as well after the VW diesel scandal. many cities wanted to impose a diesel ban back then because of the carbon-monoxides
Ouch. That can’t be good for my asthma.
That’s near the Tatras, correct? Such a beautiful place to be desecrated by such awful pollution.
At least heat is cheap
Again don’t let the Guardian see this.