Czechs mull air quality at conference in Prague

On Friday, a three-day conference on air pollution came to an end in Prague, organised by the European Commission. The conference was the conclusion of a series of joint projects with the candidate countries to study the air pollution related problems in the ten future member states. Dita Asiedu was at the conference and brings back this report:

Czechs mull air quality at conference in Prague

Several hundred experts on pollution from all over Europe gathered in Prague last week to discuss what steps need to be taken to improve air quality, including Jaroslav Santroch, Deputy Director of the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute, which is responsible for the measurement and evaluation of air pollution:

"Air quality in the Czech Republic is comparable to that of the other European countries. We have improved our air quality extensively during the last decade, emissions were decreased from large sources but Prague has the most important source, which is traffic."

The Czech Republic currently has ninety-six automatic monitoring stations in the most polluted areas of north-western Bohemia, Prague, and North Moravia. The main compounds measured are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulates (general term used to describe tiny bits of matter floating around in the atmosphere), carbon monoxide and ozone. To Giovanni de Santi, from the Joint Research Centre, one of the Directorate Generals of the EC, there is a clear gap between the air quality of the current EU member states and the candidate countries, but he's convinced the necessary measures are being taken to improve the situation:

"Scientific knowledge in the field of air pollution is very high, so in that respect I think they are on the same level as in the member states. What we do not have at the same level yet - in all candidate countries - is the monitoring system. Different countries use different methods to measure the same pollutants and therefore you cannot even compare the results. We collaborate a lot with institutions, research centres and the national authorities of these candidate countries and I generally found a very high level of enthusiasm and competence in these institutions. So, on that point of view I am very optimistic."

Mr de Santi is positive that the candidate countries will soon meet all EU requirements in the area of air pollution. The most important step, he says, is to develop a new network of excellence to join all national laboratories and get all scientists working together and exchanging data.