Environment ministry names most polluted Ukrainian cities

According to data of 1992-2012, very high and high level of air pollution was observed in more than 20 cities of Ukraine, Tyzhden.ua reports citing data of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

"During 20 years the most polluted cities are mainly in the east and center of Ukraine, in particular, in Donetsk region - Horlivka, Dzerzhynsk, Donetsk, Yenakievo, Kramatorsk, Makiyivka, Mariupol and Sloviansk," the newspaper writes.

In the early 1990s there was a high level of pollution in Luhansk, whereas in Lysychansk, Severodonetsk and Rubizhne high level of pollution remains event today.

In the central region the most polluted air is recorded in Dnipropetrovsk, Dniprodzerzhynsk and Kryviy Rih.

In Cherkasy high pollution level was observed before 2008, then it decreased to high.

In the southern region throughout the period very high level of contamination remains in Odesa, high - in Krasnoperekopsk and Zaporizhzhia, since 1999 - in Armiansk.

In the west, a high level of air pollution is seen in Lutsk, in some years - in Uzhgorod.

Overall, in the territory of Ukraine during 1992-2012 air pollution level was characterized as high.

The monitoring of air pollution by meteorological observation organizations is carried out in 53 cities of Ukraine (including all regional centers).

The ministry explains that very high and high levels of air pollution in cities is due to significant concentrations of formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, phenol, benzo (a) pyrene, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, suspended matters.

The level of air pollution in cities is estimated by the Air Pollution Index (API), which is calculated by the sum of the five largest API contaminants with the average annual concentrations.

Adapted from ukrinform