Environmental pollution in south Poland. Sources and effects.

Seven out of twenty-seven areas of ecological hazard are located in South Poland, close to the Silesia-Cracow region. This region is most affected by several factors of both industrial and non-industrial origin. Air pollutants are of prime importance for the whole area. Mining of coal, zinc and lead ores cause a great additional threat to the natural environment and human population. A considerable set of data is available on the air pollution in the city of Cracow and the whole area of Katowice voivodship. In the center of the industrial area the concentrations of SO2 and dust exceed the country average by 7 to 13 times. In the Katowice district alone about 40% of the total amount of solid waste for Poland is located. The air concentrations of manganese, zinc, iron, ammonia, carbon monoxide, lead, cadmium, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, ozone, PAH, phenol, heterocyclic and chlorinated hydrocarbons exceed the allowed limits. Many of the above mentioned contaminants create an appreciable threat to human health. Poor infrastructure, nervous stresses, ugly environments and other factors are potential additional threats to human health, causing civilizational diseases. The ecological awareness of most people is rather poor, and extremely weak within some social groups (coke-plant workers, mine workers).