Clean Air for Health – HEAL Poland shares recommendations for local authorities

Air pollution poses a serious health threat, as underlined in numerous studies. In cities, one of the significant sources of this pollution is transport. HEAL Poland recently launched briefings for Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, and Wrocław, which highlight the health harm from air pollution, especially from transport, and present recommendations for local authorities on how to improve air quality. 

Poland is one of the countries with the highest levels of air pollution in Europe. The concentrations for the key air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) have been found to exceed the levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) several times over, especially in cities. Children, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, and those living in socio-economically disadvantaged areas or those with high traffic are particularly at risk. 

“Both short- and long-term exposure to air pollution, including that from transport, contributes to a range of negative health effects that cannot be ignored,” comments Olga Wdowiczak, Environmental Health Policy Specialist at HEAL. These include respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, but also less commonly linked impacts on as diabetes, adverse birth outcomes, and impaired cognitive development in children. 

Implementing measures to reduce transport emissions brings health, economic, and social benefits. Available analyses suggest that if the latest WHO air quality guidelines were met, Warsaw could avoid 2,023 deaths annually due to PM2.5 pollution and 743 deaths from NO₂ exposure. Estimates for Kraków, Poznań, and Wrocław indicate that several hundred premature deaths annually could be prevented in each city through cleaner air.  

Local authorities play a crucial role in transforming cities and should work towards achieving clean air to protect their residents’ health. Therefore, in its new briefings for each city, HEAL Poland presents recommendations for the four cities, aiming to reduce transport emissions, including: 

• Introducing low-emission zones, such as Clean Transportation Zones.

• Promoting healthy mobility by improving public transport networks, expanding cycling infrastructure, and creating pedestrian-friendly spaces.

• Increasing the number of green areas. 

• Increasing spatial planning based on the “15-minute city” concept, ensuring that residents’ basic needs can be met within 15 minutes on foot, by bike, or via public transport from their homes. 

For more information visit the HEAL Poland website, where briefings for Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, and Wrocław are available in Polish.