The impact of environmental pollutants on human health is a complex issue that depends on a number of factors

We are witnessing various interpretations of air quality these days, from different interpretations in the media to declaring Sarajevo the most polluted city in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the indexing of air quality in BiH cities.

We are aware that it is necessary to draw the attention of the public and institutions to the state of air quality and that there is indeed room for improvement, but sometimes the methods are not correct and lead to public misinformation, warned the Public Health Institute of KS.

The Public Health Institute of Sarajevo Canton is the authorized institution responsible for monitoring air quality in the Sarajevo Canton area, within which raw data obtained from measurements at automatic and manual stations are validated, the obtained measurement results are analyzed, and recommendations for citizens are made according to the requirements of the Rulebook on the method of air quality monitoring and defining types of pollutants, limit values and other air quality standards (Official Gazette of BiH No. 01/12 of 06.01.2012).

The Rulebook according to which the analysis and reporting are carried out does not provide for the use of air quality indexing. There are different ways of indexing air quality that individual countries apply, and their application, among other things, serves to communicate with citizens in terms of warnings, but it has not been proven to have a significant effect on changing the planning of citizens' activities.

The impact of environmental pollutants on human health is a complex issue and depends on a number of factors, among which the duration of exposure, concentration levels, and types of pollutants must certainly be taken into account.

Scientific research indicates that indexing, depending on the chosen method, can pose a danger and mislead, because the index usually has the highest proportion of the pollutant with the highest measured value, and it is possible to lose sight of the gradual increase in concentrations of other pollutants that are not present in extremely high concentrations but can have a significant negative impact on human health even at lower concentrations.

The effect on human health must be monitored through both short-term and long-term exposure. Another problem that can arise with the use of certain indexing methods is the failure to consider the mutual influence of individual pollutants, which can result in more serious consequences for human health than the impact of each individual pollutant.

Finally, there is a great danger from arbitrary creation or modification of indexing methods, such as, for example, taking PM 2.5 concentrations and approximately converting them into PM10 concentrations and vice versa, whereby the displayed values of an arbitrary index lose their meaning, as they do not provide information relevant to the air quality status. Air quality indexing is classified as air quality assessment, for which the Federal Hydrometeorological Institute has jurisdiction at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the reference institution, and it is not good for citizens or for air quality monitoring itself to arbitrarily announce institutions that do not have jurisdiction and do not have valid data on the state of air quality.