With a new series of measurements, the Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) analysed air pollution caused by heating in Börzsöny and Pilis mountains. The results show a frightening picture.

Take a human hair, split its diameter into three thousand parts. Particles of similar size can be detected by the TSI P-TRAK 8525 condensation particle counter, which we used for the analysis. You might ask, why we measured these nano-sized (1 meter = 1 billion nanometer) air pollutants. It is because invisible particles between 20 and 300 nanometers (smaller than the wavelength of visible light) enter the air in high numbers due to heating with wood. We also know that these particles are extremely harmful to our health, as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified air pollution deriving from residential heating using coal as carcinogenic. Another study published by WHO a few months ago shows that air pollution causes 1,6 trillion dollar damage in Europe and 40 billion dollar damage in Hungary. That is more than 1 million Hungarian Forint damage per person every year.

We started our measurements on the 3rd of November 2015 in the afternoon at 17:00 at the 864 meters high Nagy Hideg mountain. At sunset, the top of the „cold pillow” was clearly visible, sharply separating from the warmer and drier air stratifying above it.

We can consider 1000 particles in a cubic centimeter as relatively clean air. However, this low amount was only measured by us once when we were analysing the air near the surface on 28th of September at Békéscsaba. In this case the prolonged, strong winds combined with the cold front swept the air clean.

Continuing the analysis, we obtained the next, slightly higher result - 8670 particles - at Királyrét. The real shock came at Szokolya. This small village in the heart of the Börzsöny was covered in a dense cloud of smoke and fog where the sour smell of burning wood indicated the source of the smog. The particle counter showed us an average of 29395 particles.

The next measurement took place in the Valley of the Danube at Vác on the Schuszter Konstantin square. Although Vác is a significantly bigger town than Szokolya, our system detected only about 21035 particles in the air. Our next stop was on the other side of the Danube, next to Pilisszentlászló, in the Hegytető parking lot. Here, far from the villages and 452 meters high, we measured cleaner air, about 6043 particles. This “good” air is catastrophically ruined in Pilisszentlászló by the heating. The particle counter showed us 24021 particles. Going further down in the valley, at Szentendre on the Villa row near the railway line, 26172 nano particles was polluting the air. Heading back to the mountains, at Pilisszentkereszt we again felt the smog caused by wood heating, producing an average of 18433 particles.

On the top of the Boldog Özséb viewpoint (Pilis-mountain) we detected the cleanest air, 5527 particles on average. From this point the edge of the „cold pillow” was clearly visible, the smog was lit by the lights of Budapest. We didn’t want to miss the capital either, so we made a measurement on the side of Rózsadomb, in the Lepke street and afterwards in the garden of the National Museum. At Rózsadomb we observed relatively clean air, the result was 12953 particles, whilst despite the high traffic on Múzeum-körút, in the garden of the Museum it was only 14202.

The measurements show that in some small towns wood heating in the heating season can cause higher air pollution than the combined effect of heating and traffic in the capital. Human health has priority above anything else, and that is why the Clean Air Action Group considers it very important to inform people and raise awareness countrywide about mastering the correct heating technologies and learning about the source of air pollution.

The particle counter was provided by Evopro. Thanks to the Ariadne Barlangkutató Organization who helped us get on top of Pilis-mountain.