Choi Won-suk is a photojournalist at The Korea Times. Before joining the newspaper, he also worked as a photojournalist with AFP and St. Joseph News-Press in Missouri. He spent 13 years in the United States, graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism degree (Cum Laude) from the University of Missouri - Columbia and a Master of Arts in Photography from Ohio University - Athens. Over the past 11 years, Choi covered various news events such as presidential elections, the 2019 North Korea-United States Hanoi Summit and 2022 Qatar World Cup. But above all, Choi believes in local journalism and finds a lot of joy telling life stories of ordinary citizens in small neighborhoods.
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
By Choi Won-suk
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.