Air quality in Thrace degrading: Academic

EDİRNE

The air quality in the Thrace region is degrading, with the northwestern province of Edirne facing the highest risk, an academic has warned.

“Edirne has the most polluted air, but the air pollution in the provinces of Tekirdağ and Kırklareli are high, too,” Gamze Varol from Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University told the Demirören News Agency.

Saying that the air quality across the country is “generally not good,” the academic remarked the worse situation in the Thrace region.

When asked about the reason for the air pollution in Edirne, she said, “The industrial zone in the Keşan district lowers the quality of air in the province.”

She also highlighted that air pollution in the region also caused deaths.

“When we analyze the cases between 2017 and 2019, we see that low air quality is the reason for most deaths of people over the age of 30,” Varol said, adding that this was a very serious matter.

Apart from the region, Varol also noted that some 30,000 people in Turkey died in 2019 due to air pollution.

Aziz Avukatoğlu, the provincial head of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers in Edirne, remarked that the meteorological changes the country faced in time were due to air pollution.

“Two months ago, heavy rains in the Black Sea caused floodings. This summer, the temperature in Edirne topped 47 degrees Celsius. We rarely see snow in the winter,” he said.