Breathing Kyiv’s air is harmful

Switching to bicycles as a method of transportation improves people’s health as well as the environment. This is one of the findings of research done by experts of Ukraine’s Central Geophysical Observatory at the Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to data provided by Iryna Kolisnyk, the head of the Observatory Department, the atmosphere is mainly contaminated by nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde.

According to the pollution summaries of 2007, the downtown core of Kyiv, in particular Bessarabska Ploshcha and bulvar Lesi Ukrainky, as well as Moskovska Ploshcha and the area around the Sviatoshyno subway station, are among the most polluted areas in Kyiv. Like before, the Hydropark is still relatively clean. Kolisnyk said that the main cause of air pollution is the large number of cars.

The specialists at the observatory are concerned about the increase in the number of cases of one-time air pollution. Last year 14 cases of nitrogen dioxide pollution (10 times more than in 2006) were recorded. The Bessarabka area, where maximally permissible levels were frequently exceeded several times over, as well as Moskovska Ploshcha, appears to be the most polluted. In general, the air pollution index shows that the air in Kyiv is the worst between March and August, when the largest number of cars is concentrated in the city.

What can be done to help residents and guests of the city to breathe easier? Yurii Urbansky, the deputy head of Ukraine’s National Ecological Center, believes that the productive capacity of Kyiv’s highways should be increased, and top priority on the capital’s roads should be given to public transport and bicycles.

“A good bus, as opposed to private cars, can carry several tens of passengers. So the number of people choosing bicycles has recently increased in Kyiv. There could be more of them if certain conditions were created. DAI employees should be doing more careful traffic monitoring, making sure that traffic rules are respected. In my opinion, special bike paths should be created for bicyclists, like this has been done in London,” Urbansky explained. To clean up the air in Kyiv, the municipal authorities should create special ways for public transport to reduce the number of traffic jams on the highways. This problem can be partially resolved with the help of streetcars, trolley-buses, and above-ground electric trains.

“For example, people in London use both local trains and the subway. Kyiv should increase the number of local trains, especially considering that the city already has a ring route railway that passes through several districts of the capital.”

Kyiv city councilman Oleksandr Pabat is convinced that another source of air pollution in Kyiv is the fixed-route taxis whose drivers break traffic rules and create traffic jams.

“The Kyiv authorities have to expand the public transportation system. Above all, this means building new subway lines. In addition, each automobile should undergo compulsory pollution control tests. We have to resolve the questions of switching to less toxic forms of energy and fuel, moving motor transport companies, service stations, and freight transportation from densely-populated residential districts to the suburbs, and limiting vehicle access to the city center,” Pabat recommended.

Every year Kyiv’s automobile transport emits as much pollution as all of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, said the Kyiv-based ecologist Volodymyr Boreiko, who used this kind of comparison to help people grasp the degree of danger.

“Traffic-restriction norms should be developed and the amount of green spaces increased. In the last 10 years Kyiv has lost over 400 hectares of green spaces, and the trend of destroying parks and public gardens by the local authorities is continuing. Although Ukraine has adopted a law on air protection, there are many regulatory acts that are hindering its implementation. It is also more advantageous for company owners to pay taxes than to build purifying structures. It appears that the state receives money for environmental pollution and puts it into the common treasury instead of applying it to ecological needs,” Boreiko explained.