Air quality in Zonguldak

What is the current level of air pollution in Zonguldak?

Zonguldak is a city and the capital of Zonguldak Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It was established at the end of the 19^th century as a port to service the ever-expanding nearby coal industry. The trade through coal remains important to this day.

According to the 2009 census, Zonguldak had an estimated population of approximately 110,000 people.

Towards the middle of 2021, the city was experiencing a period of “Good” quality air with a US AQI reading of 42. This United States Air Quality Index number is an internationally used set of metrics supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is used to compare air quality in different cities throughout the world using comparable standards. It is calculated by using the levels of the six most commonly found pollutants. If records for all six are unavailable, then the figure is calculated using what information there is. For Zonguldak there were three recordings that the figure was based on. These were: PM2.5 - 9.7 µg/m³, PM10 - 46.4 µg/m³ and sulphur dioxide (SO) - 5.2 µg/m³.

With a level as low as this, doors and windows can be opened to allow the flow of clean air to enter the rooms. All forms of outdoor exercise can be pursued without fear of harmful air.

Is the level of air pollution constant throughout the year in Zonguldak?

Air pollution can be very volatile and, as such, can change very quickly depending on many variables, such as wind speed and direction and the strength of sunlight.

Looking back at the figures published by the Swiss air monitoring company IQAir.com for 2020 it can be seen that for four months of the year from June until the end of September, Zonguldak achieved the target figure as suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 10 µg/m³. The best month was August with a very low reading of just 6 µg/m³. The worst months were in February and December when the air quality was classified as being “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” with figures between 35.5 and 55.4 µg/m³. For the remaining 6 months of the year the air quality was “Moderate” with readings between 12.1 and 25.4 µg/m³. Records were first held in 2019 when the average annual figure was 20.4 µg/m³. A slight decline was seen in 2020 when that figure was 22.5 µg/m³. However, this may not be a truly accurate reading because of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many vehicles were no longer used as the drivers were furloughed and not required to commute to and from work. There were also many factories and other non-essential production units which were temporarily closed in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.

What is the main source of air pollution in Zonguldak?

Currently, there is an active thermal power plant with 7 units in Zonguldak. In addition to these, 5 new ones were requested to be built within the last 10 years, but due to public pressure, these last five have been cancelled.

Meeting the increasing energy demand with fossil fuels such as oil and coal, excessive consumption of low-quality lignite coal and exhaust gases from motor vehicles, wrong location selection in the establishment of industrial facilities, lack of chimney filters and the use of high sulphur fuels are considered the main causes of air pollution.

Can anything be done to improve the air quality in Zonguldak?

In many of the cities experiencing air pollution, Clean Air Action Plans have not been established, existing plans have not been made public, and information and practices have not been identified regarding the efforts of institutions towards the targets in these plans.

What needs to be done is to measure all pollutants in a way to create 90 per cent data at all stations, to determine the regional spread and sources of pollution by modelling on these measurements, and to take concrete steps to reduce these pollution sources.

Turkey needs to plan to close coal-fired power plants (starting with the oldest) in order to solve air pollution, fight against the climate crisis and develop new technologies without wasting time.

What detrimental effects on human health does the air in Zonguldak have?

Millions of people suffering from chronic diseases or undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy because of their past exposure to air pollution are more vulnerable to Covid-19. Because air pollution causes health problems such as diabetes, cancer, asthma, lung and heart diseases, which cause Covid-19 to be more serious and even fatal, and these problems significantly increase the hospitalisation rates and death risk of infected people. According to experts, the risk of infection increases due to the effect of air pollution on the immune system, while respiratory symptoms in infected people worsen due to air pollution.

Since it is a new disease, there is a lot of uncertainty about Covid-19, but within the available information, it can be said that exposure to air pollution is effective in the spread of the disease.

Polluted air can cause disorders in many organs, especially in the heart and circulatory system. Heart attacks, heart failure, intravascular coagulation, stroke in the nervous system, stroke are the most common diseases.

It impairs lung development in the respiratory system, especially in children, causing an unhealthy development and various lung diseases in later life. It is known that babies exposed to air pollution in the womb before birth are prone to respiratory diseases in their future lives.

Air pollution plays a role in the development of diseases such as COPD and asthma, and also causes these diseases to develop.

It has been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a Group I, carcinogen. This means it is now a scientific fact that air pollution causes lung cancer without any doubt. In addition, the WHO defines air pollution as one of the responsible factors in the development of bladder cancers.

It is now known that it causes many diseases such as autism, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, appendicitis, and deterioration in sperm quality.

Not everyone is affected by air pollution to the same extent, even the healthiest people are exposed to the negative effects of this situation. Especially children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic diseases are more affected by pollution.