Health impacts of air pollution

Over the past decade, air quality has been improving. Between 2010 and 2023, the annual average concentration of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5) decreased from 33 μg/m³ to 14.5 μg/m³. It has followed a consistent downward trend, except for small increases in 2017 and 2018 (up to 23.4 μg/m³) and 2021 (19.2 μg/m³). No comparable assessment can be conducted for the period before 2010 due to there being too few measurement sites for PM_2.5. The main cause of particulate pollution in Poland is the burning of solid fuels in household stoves, mostly for heating purposes, followed by transportation. In recent years, higher temperatures in the winter have strengthened the downward trend in air pollution and reinforced the country’s actions to improve air quality. These actions include replacing stoves/boilers, improving thermal efficiency, installing renewable energy systems in homes, enacting anti-smog resolutions, creating inventories of emissions from individual heat sources and educating the public. The air quality monitoring network in Poland is more extensive than required by EU Directive 2008/50/EC. It consisted of 288 stations in 2024, and the number has been increasing over the years. Poland also boasts the best results in Europe for quality assurance in air quality measurements. The health impacts indicator takes into account deaths caused by any natural reason, so the trend presented does not reflect air quality.