Air pollution in Turkey’s Bursa reaches alarming levels

BURSA - Doğan News Agency

Air pollution in the western province of Bursa has reached alarming levels, posing risks to human health, the latest data from the Environment and Urbanization Ministry’s Air Quality Index has shown. 

The rising consumption of coal due to winter plays an important role in the deterioration of air quality in Bursa, one of Turkey’s industrial centers.

Air pollution makes it difficult for residents to breathe in downtown Bursa.

Polluted air also poses various health risks to city residents.

Latest tests run throughout the city showed that the PM10 (particulate matter 10) level increased to 167 from a previously recorded level of 70. This qualifies the city’s air as “unhealthy.”

An index level at 200 indicates “poor” and an index value at 300 points to “dangerous” air quality.

The Environment and Urbanization Ministry warns that poor air quality poses health risks to the wider population but particularly to vulnerable groups.

Air pollution in the city has reached alarming levels due to hazardous emissions as a result of unsupervised activities of industrial facilities, said Dr. Ramazan Köylü, a pulmonologist at Medicalpark Hospital, adding that the sharp rise in lung cancer, COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and asthma cases in the city is related to the polluted air.

Air pollution in the city poses risks particularly to elderly, children and people with respiratory diseases, Köylü said.

When the thermal power plant to be built in the Demirtaş Organized Zone comes online, people in Bursa may have to wear masks to breathe, he added.