The Effects of Air Pollution in Our Cities

The White City Enveloped by Black Fog

Beyond the century-old facades, domed churches and concrete brutalist buildings that decorate Belgrade’s skyline is another human-made element that has become synonymous with the city as any other. Thick layers of dark and dirty air surround residents, giving the city’s iconic features an unwelcoming hug that is at times so strong, it chokes everyone in its path.

Serbia, like the rest of the world, is no stranger to environmental degradation and climate change. However, it wasn’t until around 2018 that mass public attention abruptly shifted, in part due to rapidly increasing gaps in social inequality as well as local civil organizations and Green political parties informing public opinion. 

Two-thirds of the Serbian citizens surveyed believe that preserving the environment is more important than the economic growth of the country, while one in four citizens cited air pollution being their biggest concern, according to a public opinion survey conducted by the United Nations Development Program in cooperation with the Center for Free Elections and Democracy.

However, this shift is no surprise, as the capital’s winter months are accompanied by air that some residents claim to be so dirty that it can be tasted. A visible haze blankets the city and audibly affects residents’ lungs — particularly at-risk populations such as children and people with asthma.

For some quick scientific context, air pollution is made up of a variety of factors but for the sake of simplicity, the most common pollutants are particulate matter and ground-level ozone (as well as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and lead).

Also known as PM10 and PM2.5, particulate matter are inhalable particles with diameters around 10 or 2.5 micrometers — tiny inhalable particles measured by 10 micrometers are mostly emitted by unsealed roads, smoke from fires and vehicle exhausts, while the latter is primarily linked to the combustion of coal, gasoline, oil, diesel fuel or wood. Ground-level ozone (marked as the “bad type” of ozone and the main ingredient in smog) is a man-made chemical created through reactions like the combustion of coal, gasoline, oil, diesel fuel or wood.

Nestled between the Sava and Danube Rivers, Belgrade’s city center lies about 35 kilometers east and 95 kilometers west of the Nikola Tesla and Kostolac thermal power plants. About 70% of Serbia’s electrical energy comes from coal-burning thermal power plants. The rest is primarily from hydrothermal power plants, with a small amount attributed to renewable energy, making Serbia susceptible to high rates of industrial pollution alongside everyday emissions that are seen everywhere in the world as a result of human reliance on industrialized products.

These two power plants that sandwich the capital were responsible for 87.68% of the country’s particulate matter (PM) emissions in 2023, a number that fell from a staggering 99.51% in 2020, according to the Serbian electric industry’s official environmental reports. A significant portion of the country’s electrical energy is made by burning lignite coal, a type that is high in moisture and low carbon content, resulting in more carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

In 2021, Serbia’s population was reportedly exposed to 22.5 µg/m3 (the measurement given for the concentration of air pollutants in microgram cubic meter air) per person on average  — 4.5 times the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 5µg/m3. 

Air pollution isn’t just an environmental issue but also a serious public health crisis. Exposure to particulate matter has been proven to be an important factor in deaths from type 2 diabetes, lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, lower-respiratory infections and neonatal disorders.

Same Story, Different Place

Coal-burning power plants aren’t the only contributors to Belgrade’s polluted air — human contributions such as transportation and cooking emissions certainly play a role, especially when compared to a city like Chicago, where instead of thermal power plants surrounding communities, there are rather major transit factors that directly affect residents’ lives.

Like Belgrade and many other major cities, Chicago’s air quality is poor, ranking it as the 18th most polluted city in the United States out of 228 metropolitan areas and placing it at 17th place for the number of high ozone days, according to the American Lung Association’s latest State of the Air report.

Chicago has historically been a nonattainment area — meaning it does not meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ​​National Ambient Air Quality Standards set in the 1990 Clean Air Act — of which most factors can be attributed to the freight-transit-caused ozone pollution. The city is at a crossroads of mass interstate traffic as well as being near transit areas for six of the seven major railroads.

This being said, ozone pollution is quite different from the PM pollution marking Belgrade’s skies during the winter. Belgrade’s low winter temperatures exacerbate PM pollution since more energy is needed to provide things like regular residential heating during the winter months. It is during the summer that Chicago sees its worst air quality of the year. When high levels of transit emissions like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) interact with the sun and high heat, the smog-making chemical reactions occur at much higher rates.

Decades ago, when Chicago was an epicenter of industries and factories such as coal mines and steel mills, the pollution quite literally looked different, according to DePaul University College of Science and Health Professor Dr. Mark Potosnak. 

“You’d look outside on a day, like today, and it just wouldn’t be clear. You’d see haze in the atmosphere, soot would cover things,” explains Potosnak. “So, people really kind of could wrap their heads around that air quality is really bad.” 

The sentiment is reminiscent of Belgrade today. Industries that used similar materials as Belgrade uses today would elicit a response from Chicago residents, making the topic of air quality and pollution one of importance. When comparing the two cities’ public attitudes towards the topic, there is more general and widespread public interest in fixing the issue among Belgrade’s residents than in Chicago. 

When It’s Actually “Wealth is Health” (and Not the Other Way Around)

An irrefutable fact regarding environmental issues, climate change, natural disasters and public health anywhere in the world is that marginalized communities are affected the most often and the most directly due to a lack of resources, socioeconomic deprivation and international zoning practices.

Predrag Momčilović, a Belgrade-based journalist and environmental activist, wrote an extensive study in 2021 analyzing Serbia’s relationship with air pollution titled “Air as a Common Good.” Published by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s Southeast office, the study analyzes historical contexts that have contributed to Serbia’s current position as one of the most polluted countries in the Balkan region, while looking at contemporary industrial practices, social inequality within environmental contexts, political and legislative actions as well as chronology of the fight for clean air in the country.

“In parts of cities where people of higher socio-economic status live, there are more green spaces that help bring down the effects of pollution, residents who are in better material positions have the opportunity to use indoor air filters more often, have the option to leave the city when pollution rates are at their highest point and generally spend less time in open spaces where pollution affects health the most,” writes Momčilović.

Environmental injustice in Chicago is also a pertinent issue, especially when it comes to pollution. Neighborhoods on the West, South and Southeast sides of the city have historically been far more polluted than their North Side counterparts; steel mills were Southeast, while freight trains and busy interstate highways primarily pass through the South and West, directly endangering these communities.

While the issues themselves are still incredibly prevalent, there are signs of improvement, Senior Policy Advocate for the Environmental Law and Policy Center Susan Mudd notes. “Chicago is working on developing a cumulative impact ordinance, which would mean, for instance, a new industrial facility was being proposed, it wouldn’t just be looked at in terms of the emissions it has or it’s proposed to have, but what’s already in the neighborhood where it’s trying to locate,” said Mudd. 

Questions regarding the existing prevalence of excessive air pollution will be asked, asthma rates will be analyzed in an effort to not overburden or target a specific community and neighborhood with pollution, especially if that is already the case.

Although progress with environmental issues is a slow process anywhere, it’s the existence of a process in the first place that counts. Both Belgrade and Chicago are among the hundreds of metropolitan areas that have local community organizations and government initiatives using air-quality monitors on localized scales to continually monitor air pollution, providing context and knowledge of the environment that these very same communities live and breathe in.

When it comes to individual human habits that may help combat air pollution, the “no-brainers” are “no-brainers” for a reason. Actions like getting vehicles off the road play an important role according to Potosnak. “Even if it’s not the worst polluting vehicles you remove, it makes the traffic better for everyone. You know, public transportation, biking, walking. Those are all a big help,” said Potosnak.

Clean and healthy air should not be a commodity, only available to those who can afford to access it, but rather an integral element of our cities, just as much as skylines, rivers or lakes.

Header by Jana Simović.