Monitoring and results

The Inspection for Environmental protection is monitoring air quality in Poland. Its tasks are performed by the Chief Inspector for Environmental Protection assisted by the General Inspectorate for Environmental Protection and voivodes supported by voivodship inspectors for environmental protection, as heads of voivodship inspections for environmental protection. In 2013 air quality was monitored in 809 automatic stations, 983 manual stations and in 1.137 stations in which passive methods are used. Stations are installed in traffic areas, urban background areas and rural areas depending on a voivodship. Usually in those voivodships where exceedances are the highest, there are more measuring stations. The full map of the stations is available online. Data are published by annual reports on air quality for European Commission.

According to the yearly evaluation of air quality for 2016 (Ocena jakości powietrza w strefach w Polsce za rok 2016 Zbiorczy raport krajowy z rocznej oceny jakości powietrza w strefach wykonywanej przez WIOŚ według zasad określonych w art. 89 ustawy-Prawo ochrony środowiska: http://powietrze.gios.gov.pl/pjp/documents/download/102460)
at least one limit value was exceeded in 44 out of 46 air quality zones. Benzo(a)pyrene concentration was too high in 43 zones (over 93%), with yearly mean concentrations as high as 13 ng/m3 (Rybnicko-Jastrzębska zone). PM10 was exceeded in 35 zones (76%) and PM2,5 in 18 zones (almost 40%). Moreover, there are two zones with an exceedance of arsenic in Dolnośląskie voivodship and one zone with exceedance of benzene (Opolska zone). NO2 was noted over the limit in four major cities of Poland: Wroclaw, Krakow, Warsaw and in the agglomeration of Górny Śląsk. Moreover, in 8 zones ozone limits were also exceeded.