https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/w...smog.html?_r=0

Anyone with breathing problems may want to scratch Warsaw off your list - especially in winter. Poland has 38 of the EU's 50 most polluted cities so Poland in general can have really bad air at times.The burning of coal causes most of the problems along with vehicular exhaust.

That's a few days per winter and much less than in Kraków.

Yes this is a warning to anyone with asthma, etc -visiting during cool weather when coal furnaces are in use in addition to the burning of coal for power plants.

I'm just curious why you are posting warnings about Warsaw when it's Kraków that has the worst air quality in Poland and the problem is many times worse due to it being located in a valley and having little wind that provides natural ventilation. While it is true that there is a lot that needs to be done to improve air quality in Poland, it's Kraków that is repeatedly in the news in Poland in winter for this reason, not Warsaw. And Kraków is where most tourists go and spend most of their time.

Warsaw is built on a totally flat and normally quite well ventilated area. The most recent episode of smog has been due to the fact that the speed of wind dropped to below 5km/h for a couple of consecutive days and that caused a record build up toxic substances in the air. Such windless weather does not happen very often in Warsaw, but sometimes it does. I've just looked at the wind speed in Warsaw today and it's not even 5km/h, and most of the time it's less than 1.5km/h! It's insane.

Palen was posting what he saw from news, he means no harm

Well because the NY Times article had Warsaw in headlines- should have said Poland.

I mean no harm for sure -just to alert folks sensitive to smog about this.

There is a smog alert for London at the moment. Will you also be urging people to scratch London off their travel lists?

Both London and Paris had pollution alerts last month, as I recall, I guess that is continuing for London.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20161206/in-p...ution-in-paris

I read that one day last year Paris had worse air pollution than Beijing! Time to stop using Diesel.

There is a smog alert for London at the moment. Will you also be urging people to scratch London off their travel lists?>

Not unless they have conditions that could adversely affect them - I have posted about Parisian problems in the past. Being in a bowl like Krakow Paris has inherent problems and they are taking steps to say ban diesel cars.

Now back to Poland - they refusal to lessen their reliance in coal has made the problem much worse than it should be -right?

>>>they refusal to lessen their reliance in coal has made the problem much worse than it should be -right?

I'm pretty sure Poland will lessen its reliance on coal as soon as its GDP per capita reaches the levels enjoyed by western economies and winter temperatures stop dropping to -20C.

Krakow used to have terrible air, the shop windows used to have no reflections as the acid air etched away the surface.

Poland has tonnes of terrible coal, it could make some decisions now, it could even fit filters to its power stations, given the constant flow of cash from Brussels you would think it could manage something.
Build proper houses (far to many terrible places still around)
Invest in green energy
I have a lot of time of Poles, but its present government has porridge for brains and a lot of people with get up and go have got up and went.

Kraków air today is 2 times less polluted than London's - AQI (Air Quality Index) Kraków 81 (moderate), London 157 (unhealthy), Milan 154 (unhealthy), Paris 121 (unhealthy),Brussels 111 (unhealthy)

When will these filthy cities get rid of their tonnes of coal, fit filters on their power stations, build proper houses, invest in green energy and get rid of their porridge brained politicians?

When will these filthy cities get rid of their tonnes of coal, fit filters on their power stations, build proper houses, invest in green energy and get rid of their porridge brained politicians?>

And diesel cars which I believe Paris is starting to ban.

And Krakow has started to take steps:

http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...akow-coal-ban/

How about nuclear power like in France?

Ah nuclear energy is a more complicated discussion. Generally I'm for it and I see it fits naturally into the green environment offering low CO2, low particulates and low smut.

But not everyone agrees with me ;-)

Krakow also needs to close down a major, un filtered, steel works in the town next door. Which will happen......?

So France has built a dozen nuclear plants and is starting to ban diesel cars but still the air quality is poor? I've just had a look at the AQI map of France and it does not look much different than Poland, lots of places in the unhealthy range (>100), even in regions where they do not even have proper winters so shouldn't be burning anything to keep warm.

Let's just say that both France and Poland and most of Europe except Denmark needs to lessen air pollution - both are equally lacking -in case of Paris and even regional cities like Orleans, where friends live, and this Loire city at times also has terrible air.

Conservation is a key too - ban cars from city centers like Italy or disencourage them like in London?

And heavily penalize makers like VW when they purposefully engineer ways around pollution controls mandated by governments.

I find the better argument is

1) Provide greatly improved cycling facilities on all roads
2) Reduce free parking spaces in town (little by little, so people don't notice) and similarly constrain parking companies
3) By getting people out on their bikes rather than in their steel boxes they reclaim the streets, reduce litter, stay fitter and reduce costs on medical services
4) Don't build more roads, more roads are just places for more cars to play.
5) Leap frog the technology and move to Hydrogen electric cell cars
6) Diesel just needs to go, followed closely by petrol

Of the countries where cycling facilites are still poor Poland drops into the top section in Europe, Uk and France are about middling.

A dozen nuclear plants.... 58 old chum.

Italy? Northern Italy certainly is one of the most polluted regions in Europe. London air quality with its punitive congestion charge and nuclear plants still doesn't look very good, does it?

Back to Warsaw - historical data shows it has excellent air quality from mid April till October even with no congestion charge, no nuclear plants and no ban on diesel. If you that sensitive to air pollution, simply visit then, there really is no need for posting comments more suitable for the Daily Mail than a travel forum (is this what happened bilboburgler? no Poland-bashing stories on the Daily Mail pages today so you came here?)

Nothing against Poland and never mentioned Warsaw. While I would not look for news in the Mail I don't think they have a particularly anti-Warsaw point of view.

I think you may be repeating your initial concern about the nytimes perhaps?