Great news: Hungarian air quality excels globally

Good air quality is crucial for a healthy life, and yet it is something that not many have access to globally. Air pollution in Hungary is not perilous, but many towns have room for improvement in colder months. 

An estimated 1 in 9 deaths worldwide can be attributed to air pollution, with around 7 million people dying globally, and 13 thousand in Hungary, due to respiratory diseases caused by poor air quality, according to Index. Polluted air is one of the greatest risks to people’s health.

A recent study from the Swiss IQAir found that out of 134 countries examined, only 10 meet WHO guidelines related to air pollution. While the most polluted cities are the metropolises of Asia, several towns in Hungary could have cleaner air, too, Pénzcentrum reports.

Illustration: Unsplash / Alexander Tsang

Air quality in Hungary: the general issues

In 2023, IQAir found Hungarian air quality to be good, overall, being the 87^th most polluted on the list of the 134 countries studied. The amount of fine airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air, however, was 2.4 times the WHO’s air quality guideline value in 2023.

PM2.5  particles are invisible to the naked eye and are usually born from the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuels, the burning of wood, and industrial processes. The small size of these particles means that they can enter the respiratory tract, the circulatory system, or the brain. Exposure to high levels might lead to heart and lung problems, bronchitis, or asthma.

The five towns in the country with the highest average PM2.5 concentration were Kazincbarcika, Sajószentpéter, Miskolc, Komárom, and Szeged. The relatively higher concentration of PM2.5 in these regions had to do with three primary factors.

The main sources of pollution in the country

In Hungary, IQAir found, the main causes of pollution are cars and motorbikes, especially outdated models which put out more harmful pollutants due to inefficient combustion systems. This is a problem mostly affecting “rural areas, with many vehicles being used way past their best days, not subject to the more stringent rules that a major city might impose on its road users.”

Another important cause of pollution in the country is what the company calls the ‘chimney smoke epidemic’ in the countryside: hundreds of thousands of people using fireplaces and stoves during colder months to heat, often burning waste alongside wood and charcoal. Accordingly, levels of air pollution tend to rise during late autumn and in the winter, when people start turning on their heating.

Third, power plants and factories contribute to pollution significantly, emitting sulfur-oxides into the air, or releasing industrial wastes or byproducts (e.g. microplastics or plastic fumes) into the air or water. Nonetheless, as the National Centre for Public Health and Pharmaceuticals has previously highlighted, the industry sector cannot be considered the most significant polluter in Hungary.

Budapest provides a breath of fresh air

Budapest was the tenth on the list of most polluted towns in Hungary, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 11.7 μg/m3, placing it in the ‘moderate’ category for air quality, as it is above the WHO guideline value of 5 μg/m3.

Comparably, this level of pollution does not come close to the severity of impurity in cities like Delhi with its 102.1 μg/m3, or Peking with 34.1 μg/m3 level. As for the region, the major cities of Central and Eastern Europe performed similarly. Warsaw and Bratislava came slightly after Budapest in air quality, with PM2.5 concentrations of 13.2 and 11.8 μg/m3, respectively, while Prague and Vienna performed better, both with PM2.5 values around 9 μg/m3.

Similarly, according to the ‘Live cleanest major city ranking’ of IQAir, Budapest is among the cities with the best air quality in the world. As of 25 March 2024, it ranks 44^th, preceding others in the region, such as Bratislava, Vienna, or Warsaw.

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