Poland's air as smoggy as ever

According to the World Health Organization, Poland has some of the most air polluted areas on the planet, ranking alongside places with infamously bad air such as Beijing and New Delhi.

Poland has some of the most polluted air on the planet.

Coal produces around 80 percent of the country's energy, though the government wants to halve this figure by 2050.

University of Silesia researchers are testing air quality, taking to the skies of Katowice in a hot-air balloon with measuring equipment.

Handout photo taken and released on November 27, 2018 by environmental organization Greenpeace, shows a Greenpeace activist after he climbed a 180 metre-high chimney at Poland's Belchatow coal-fired power plant Belchatow. AFP via Greenpeace

POST DOCTORAL RESEARCHER AND COORDINATOR OF AIR MONITORING PROJECT AT UNIVERSITY OF SILESIA, MARIOLA JABLONSKA, SAYING:

"The smallest particles enter the respiratory system and they have an impact on our health, so knowing the composition and amount of the pollutants' particles in the air is very important."

A 2016 World Health Organization report found that 33 of the 50 most-polluted places in the EU were in Poland, mostly in the country's south.

Katowice, which lies at the heart of Poland's coal country, is one of them.

The local mayor wants residents to be aware of the relationship between what they use to keep their houses warm and their health.

MARCIN KRUPA, MAYOR OF KATOWICE, SAYING:

"Everyone has someone who worked in the mines or still works in the mines, so there are certain mining traditions that have been uninterrupted for many, many years. And now breaking this impasse by the necessity of switching to another source of energy is a bit difficult. But through this education, we see that it succeeds. We see it more and more often that a grandchild asks their grandmother or grandfather: 'Why are you burning this, not something else? You see the smoke coming out of chimney and this smoke is bad for us.' And people are becoming more and more aware."

In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo a miner passes by a lorry at at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. AP

Earlier this month the government approved regulations that aim to ban the dirtiest coal. But the change will only take effect in 2020.