A few days ago, the Federal Environment Agency warned of 'very poor' air quality in many places in eastern Germany, caused by a combination of an easterly flow and a stable high-pressure weather situation. This inversion weather situation led to an increased accumulation of air pollutants and significantly impaired air quality. Should we introduce more low emission zones after all?
Cities such as Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, Saalfeld, Leipzig, Plauen, Halle, Bautzen and Görlitz were particularly affected. The air quality in Dresden was also particularly poor at times. According to recommendations from the Federal Environment Agency, people with pre-existing health conditions, especially asthma, should avoid physically strenuous outdoor activities if possible in view of the poor air quality.
The weather conditions meant that warm air collected at altitude and colder air at ground level. There was hardly any mixing. This is known as inversion weather, which causes air pollutants to accumulate.
In addition, the low temperatures caused people to heat their homes more, which further increased pollution. Wood firing in particular plays a role here and leads to increased particulate matter emissions. In recent weeks, these even exceeded the exhaust emissions from road traffic. This was a particular problem in rural regions, where more wood is used for heating.
Eastern Germany suffered particularly from the poor air quality. Here, the combination of high-pressure weather conditions and an easterly flow ensured that air from Eastern Europe flowed into Germany, bringing with it a high level of particulate matter pollution. Model calculations by the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) showed that on some days the emissions in Leipzig were largely caused by pollutants from Poland, while in Dresden the air quality was significantly influenced by emissions from the Czech Republic.
According to Stefan Feigenspan from the Federal Environment Agency, such weather conditions and the associated particulate matter pollution are not abnormal for a typical winter, but have become rarer in recent years due to the mild winters.
The poor air quality also has an impact on the environmental zones. These serve to protect the population from excessive concentrations of pollutants in the air. In the meantime, pollution levels have been so high that the limit values have also been exceeded in these zones. Following discussions about new low emission zones in Dresden and Chemnitz, the poor air quality is now giving even more cause for concern about new driving bans.
In order to be able to act quickly, a warning system has been introduced in France which measures air pollution in the individual regions and reports advance warnings or alerts depending on the extent to which the threshold value has been exceeded. In the event of an alarm, some vehicles are then banned from driving for a short time, depending on the Euro standards. Could such warning systems and temporary driving bans also make sense in Germany in order to be able to react quickly and protect people from severe air pollution?
In any case, the weather situation at the beginning of the year showed how important it is to take measures to improve air quality. These include promoting low-emission heating systems, reducing traffic and promoting environmentally friendly modes of transport. This is the only way to sustainably improve air quality and protect the health of the population.