Determinants of the Quality of the Living Environment, Including PM 2.5 and PM10 Dust Pollution in the Context of Spatial Issues - The Radzionkow Case

Abstract

The article discusses determinants of living environment in Central and Eastern Europe. As an example, the city of Radzionkow was chosen, with 16 thousand inhabitants, located in the Silesia agglomeration in southern Poland, in the area where hard coal has been mined for almost two hundred years, which largely serves as a source of heating for houses and flats. 360 buildings in 6 groups of 60 buildings were examined in the selected city, which allowed to distinguish 3 different areas in terms of the quality of the living environment depending on the technical condition of buildings, the method of heating and location. To a large extent, determinants are the existing spatial and geophysical conditions of a given location. Many research and reports on the living environment do not take into account the factors mentioned, focusing only on the statistical data of pollution, excluding spatial factors. In the research presented, the author, taking into account location variables, shows differences in the measurements of air pollution in relation to the designated location zones depending on the morphological structure of the building, the degree of its modernization and the types of heating used in buildings.

Air-Pollution Control in an Emergent Market: Does It Work? Evidence from Romania

“…According to the other study, many respiratory illnesses or attacks are attributed to air pollution, including bronchitis or asthma attacks [15,[26][27][28]. Moreover, recent studies [1,[29][30][31] showed that, within the European Union (EU), major health problems are caused by air pollution with particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NO 2 ), especially respiratory ones.…”

“…Studies showed the negative impact of economic development on environmental and, especially, air quality [11,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Ostro [33] published an econometric study applied to a sample of several countries, showing that sulfur oxide particles and carbon emissions increase with economic development, caused mostly by industries.…”