Pollution în Bucharest

Pollution in Bucharest

Introduction

Bucharest has become the capital of smoke, anger(due to huge traffic jams at crossroads), the capital of noise and vibration(the auto park in Bucharest is in great part 7 years or older), the capital of overcrowdings and lack of space(lack of comfort- the sidewalks of all the major boulevards are occupied by stationary or parked automobiles), the capital of petrol stations(the fossil fuel “aroma” is encountered, on average, every 300 metres), it is overrun by unauthorised concrete garages which take over green spaces behind apartment buildings(they are estimated at a number close to 100.000 which take over 1.000.000.000 square metres An inhabitant of the city breathes in ten times more dust than the average European capital inhabitant as a consequence of the disappearance of more than 60% of green spaces in the last 16 years. The dust quantity in Bucharest is of 260-280 tonnes/square kilometre.

This is not found in any of the capitals of Europe, where we talk about another order of magnitude less than 20 tonnes/ square kilometre ", said Florin Vasiliu, vice president of Environmental Experts Association. Bucharest has about 13 million square feet of green spaces, compared to 35 million sqm in 1989. Life expectancy in Romania is one of the lowest in Europe, so that cement manufacturers have launched extensive programs for hazard awareness. Carpatcement German Holding Group will plant 15,000 trees on a land area of 20,000 sqm in Cornetu village near Bucharest. Pollution is very high, Bucharest risking to turn into an arid city. This is the conclusion the capital city fathers reached, only after Jurnalul National has launched an awareness campaign of the dangers resulting from the lack of green spaces, with thousands of inhabitants allegedly dying because of pollution. These days, municipal employees are free to identify the land to be turned into green spaces.

Transport

The over two million inhabitants of Bucharest and not only they, alongside the tonnes of dust they inhale monthly, they also breathe in carcinogenic substances released by the approximately 2.000.000 million automobiles (With all those passing by or coming to supply), their number in Bucharest, to date, doubling every 5-6 years. It became common for people of Bucharest to have not one, not two, but three cars: a personal one, a work car and another one that lies abandoned in front of the building. The number rises with approximately 130-150.000 cars and are being thrown in the same infrastructure design from 20 years ago which was built to support a maximum of 200.000 cars.

Almost half of the automobiles that are running in Bucharest function on leaded petrol One kilogram of lead/ year is released into the atmosphere by one car alone. This extremely toxic substance damages bone calcium, decalcification, causes anaemia with newborns. Due to the ease with which building authorisation are being handed out you can now find a petrol station every 500 metres Leaded Petrol has been banned for the better part of 10 year within the EU. Road traffic in Bucharest produces over 2.000.000 tonnes of toxic substances annually with dire effects on the health of the citiy’s inhabitants thus leading to a more rapid deterioration of the environment, leading to over 20.000 deaths caused by respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases). Children are born with malformations or suffering from lead intoxication. A recent poll shows that 1 in 7 children under 18 are suffering from asthma in Bucharest.

Urban Chaos

Regarding traffic jams and overcrowding, Bucharest is one of the cities one should avoid to live in with 9009 inhabitants/ square kilometre whereas Berlin has 3905 inhabitants / square kilometre, 3850 in Vienna, 3674 in Budapest and 1226 in Bratislava The most crowded are in Bucharest is District 2, with 12.724 inhabitants/ square kilometre, followed by District 3 with 12.273 and District 6 with 10.874. Standing in contrast the residential District 1 only has 3.446.Taking the fact that District 1 enjoys the luxury of having the biggest park in Bucharest- Herastrau, and the smallest building density on large areas – 1 Mai, Kiseleff, Arcul de Triumf, Agronomie- we can say that this part of the city is the only one that is close to fulfilling European legislation(11 sqm/ inhabitant). On the other hand, the entire cities “enjoys” a very small percentage of green spaces, with only 0,6 metres per inhabitant. Acid and very acid rains have been registered in Bucharest due to oxides and heavy metals pollution with 50% of rainfall being acid between 1998- 1999. The sulphur oxide quantity exceeds the established norms every winter. The nitrogen oxide concentration exceeds the short term upper limit frequently. Ammoniac is present with 2-24% more than the health norms permit it. The dust that is in suspension constantly exceeds the maximum permitted(9-11 grams whereas the limit is 7 grams). The smog moderately affects the city centre and is on a constant rise towards the periphery even though it should not exist, in theory. It is therefore understandable why, judging from this data, the mortality has been growing constantly for the past 10 years.