Super Smog Smothers Kyiv

Kyivans woke up to a new threat to their well-being this morning – not Russia’s missiles or drones darkening their skies, but another, different airborne adversary: air pollution.

For periods during the morning of Sept. 20, Ukraine’s capital was ranked worst in the world in terms of air pollution with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 175 – ahead of such notoriously polluted cities as Cairo in Egypt, Kolkata in India, and Dhaka in Bangladesh.

A thick and visible smog hung over the golden-domed city and the air carried the rancid smell of blazing fires.

The main source of the intense air pollution are fires of unknown origin burning in the Vyshhorod area, 15 kilometers from on the center of the city.

The Kyiv City Administration issued recommendations to residents, including:

• Shutting their windows
• Limiting their time spent outside
• Drinking adequate quantities of water
• Using air conditioners on their maximum settings.

Local residents were spotted once again donning face masks as they had done during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to cope with the poor quality of the air that was filled with increasing quantities of particles.

AQI is the internationally accepted yardstick to measure the level of air pollution over a given timeframe. The measurement scale runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concerns. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

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When AQI values are above 100, air quality is judged as being unhealthy: initially for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher or the longer the pollution level remains at these elevated levels.

Kyiv Taxi driver, Andriy, took a sardonic stance about the smog, that seemed to epitomize Ukrainian’s outlook on life at present: “Well, they couldn’t get us with their bombs, but now we have to breathe using a shovel,” he said.