Mariupol is the leader among Ukrainian industrial cities in terms of the Integrated Air Pollution Index (KIZA), which takes into account the degree of atmospheric air pollution by five priority pollutants.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory (CGO) named after B. Sreznevsky, the level of air pollution in Mariupol is 14.3, which is 10 times higher than the atmospheric pollution index of the "cleanest" industrial city of Ukraine - Horishny Plavnyi.
In addition to Mariupol, the list of cities with a very high level of pollution is headed by Kamenskoe (13.1), Odessa (13), Dnipro (12.4) and Krivoy Rog (12). They are followed by Kiev (9.5), Nikolaev (8.3), Kherson (7.8), Cherkassy (7.8) and Zaporozhye (7.7).
"The very high and high level of air pollution was mainly due to significant average concentrations of formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, phenol, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, suspended substances," - stated in the study of the CHO.
In particular, the average concentration of formaldehyde exceeded the average daily maximum permissible concentration (MPC) by 2.3 times, nitrogen dioxide - by 1.5 times, and the content of phenol reached 1.0 MPC.
It notes that the KIZA indicator of the general level of atmospheric air pollution in Ukrainian cities in the first half of 2020 decreased to an “increased” level - 6.9 from a “high level” of 7.1 in the first half of 2019 and 7, 6 - in the first half of 2018. If last year the improvement was due to a decrease in the content of phenol, then this year - hydrogen fluoride.
The Central Geographical Society indicates that, compared to last year, in 16 cities there was a decrease in the level of atmospheric air pollution (according to KIZA), most noticeably - in Dnipro, Nikolaev, Lutsk (up to 6.4) and Lisichansk (up to 5.0 ).
At the same time, the level of pollution has increased in eight cities, most noticeably in Kremenchuk (up to 7.1) and Cherkassy.
The least polluted air (according to KIZA) in January-June 2020, besides Horishny Plavnyi, was in Izmail (2.8), Svetlovodsk (2.8), Kharkov (3.1) and Chernivtsi (3.3).
Assessment of the state of atmospheric air pollution in the cities of Ukraine was carried out according to observations in 39 cities at 129 stationary posts of the state monitoring system of the hydrometeorological service. The content of 22 pollutants was determined in the atmosphere.
