Kraków’s ban on burning solid fuels plus subsidies for cleaner heating has led to clearer air and better health
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s a child, Marcel Mazur had to hold his breath in parts of Kraków thick with “so much smoke you could see and smell it”. Now, as an allergy specialist at Jagiellonian University Medical College who treats patients struggling to breathe, he knows all too well the damage those toxic gases do inside the human body.
“It’s not that we have this feeling that nothing can be done. But it’s difficult,” Mazur said.
Kraków, long known as the smog capital of Poland, is proof that politicians wield the power to save lives by cleaning the air. A drop in soot levels since 2013, when the city announced it would ban coal and wood in home heating, has averted nearly 6,000 early deaths over a decade, according to an expert assessment shared exclusively with the Guardian.
