The health impact of air quality has recently become an emerging issue. Many regions, especially densely populated regions, have deteriorating air quality. The primary source of pollution in Poland is the municipal sector. Air pollutants have a negative impact on human health, contribute to premature deaths, and are the cause of various diseases. Over recent years, Europe’s air quality has largely improved due to several measures to reduce pollutant emissions. The following paper presents the impact of annual average PM2.5 and NO₂ concentrations on premature deaths in Poland in 2019. Exposure to PM2.5 caused more than 19 000 premature deaths, and exposure to NO₂ contributed to around 6000 premature deaths in 2019. Taking 2019 as a baseline, the impact of the envisaged implementation of the national Clean Air Programme on the number of premature deaths is analysed. Implementing the mitigation measures focused on replacing inefficient stoves and boilers in individual households would significantly improve air quality, mainly particulate matter. Reducing PM2.5 concentrations would reduce premature deaths by around 3000 cases, while for NO_2, the number of premature deaths would not change much.

The objective of the work was to analyse the environmental effects of the development of the electric car fleet in Poland on air pollution. Three distinct scenarios for the growth of electromobility were analysed, considering spatial distribution and estimating emissions in both the transport and energy production sectors. Based on the modelling results from GEM-AQ model, the differences in average annual gaseous pollutants concentrations were calculated and compared with the baseline scenario in 2015. In the case of NO2 and SO2, the largest increases occurred around power plants. For CO, a very small reduction over most of the country was achieved in all scenarios (up to - 0.25%). Ozone background concentrations mainly decreased compared to 2015 across the country by -2%. The alternative scenario, which does not assume the anticipated constant growth in electricity demand, is characterized by the reduction of concentrations background for NOSO2 (up to 1.5%) and CO (up to -0.25%), a smaller increase of SO2 concentrations (up to 5%) and on average higher ozone background. Alternative scenario revealed the most differences, with power sector emissions and constant electricity demand growth overshadowing the impact of electric vehicle fleet changes on air pollution.

The residential sector is one of the most important emissions sources affecting air quality in Poland. According to KOBiZE IEP-NRI, in 2018 this sector accounted for 63% and 82% of the national totals for PM10 and PM2.5.  We attempted to assess the impact of the national “Clean Air” Programme that focuses on the replacement of old solid-fuel furnaces and boilers. The proposed scenarios assumed that the heating devices were replaced in approx. 2 million single-family houses. A random selection of the building was applied:Scenario-1 - emission reduction for all administrative units in Poland.  Scenario-2 - emission reduction for administrative units were the annual average PM2.5 concentrations in 2019 exceeded the threshold of 20 µg/m3 The emission factors were changed to represent the fuel standards set for modern heating systems. The GEM-AQ air quality model was used as a computational tool (Kaminski et al. 2008).  We will present the scenario effectiveness based on different metrics. The implementation of emission reduction in the residential sector would significantly reduce health exposure due to PM10, PM2.5, and B(a)P dust. Due to the assumptions regarding the fuel mix of new installations, the background concentrations of nitrogen oxides and ozone would slightly increase, but this would not change the exposure.