Sixth Episode of the Series “Look Around You”- Zaječar: Living in a Gas Chamber

In recent years, when media reports on daily air pollution levels in certain cities, Zaječar is not even mentioned. Unfortunately, not because its air is clean, but because current pollution data are not accessible to the public. Thus, the city, which bears the ignominious title of the runner-up in pollution in Serbia, remains forgotten by both the media and the authorities responsible for addressing this issue.

The dominant source of air pollution in Zaječar is suspended PM10 particles, with their enormous values resulting from the use of fossil fuels for heating. However, the city has only one state monitoring station, and its results can only be accessed with a one-year delay, lacking real-time monitoring…

So, both figuratively and literally, the people of Zaječar are in the dark, enveloped in a deadly haze. There is hardly a glimmer of hope that this huge problem will be solved anytime soon. Information about the extent of pollution is also obscured, with values sometimes reaching levels that would necessitate outdoor activity bans. Assessments of pollution’s impact on cancer and cardiovascular diseases, as well as data on premature deaths, are shrouded in uncertainty. Nationally, there are around 6,000 premature deaths annually due to pollution, and considering Zaječar ranks second in pollution behind Valjevo, grim estimates suggest that hundreds of Zaječar residents pay with their lives for the neglect of this acute, perhaps the city’s most significant problem…

You can watch the sixth episode of the “Look Around You” series below.