The air in capital Tirana is over polluted with 50 per cent compared to European Union’s standards, officials say.

Jualian Beqiri, the head of Albania’s National Environment Agency says according to the EU standards the allowed concentration of the PM10, or the dust particles, is 40 micrograms in one meter cubic air, while in Tirana that amount is 64 micrograms.

He says that in traffic junctions the pollution is even higher arriving at the 120 micrograms.

According to the Agency, the main air pollutants are cars, which in Albania are relatively amortized.  

Tirana Municipality is monitoring the situation and says there is an improvement compared to the previous year, but in low levels.

The main problems caused by the polluted air are respiratory allergies.  Doctors say the pollution in the air is the main factor that has doubled the cases with respiratory allergies in capital Tirana in last decade.

Tirana municipality is implementing several measures aimed at improve air quality, including the day without cars, encouraging people to use more bicycles and public transport, etc.  

According to the official data, the air in Tirana is cleaner than it was five years before, but lot needs to be done to reach the EU standards.

The World Health Organization says over 12 million people die every year in the world because of the pollution in the air./tvklan.al