City pollution levels shoot back up as traffic returns
![City pollution levels shoot back up as traffic returns](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/traffic_web.jpg)
After almost two months of unprecedented lows in terms of atmospheric pollutants in all major Greek cities, the return of traffic to the streets last week also led to a spike in pollution levels.
According to the most recent Environment Ministry data, there was a sharp increase in Athens in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) to 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air and in the level of suspended particulate matter to 20-50 μg/m3.
Data from the European Environment Agency’s database (which has created a special platform with data on air pollution and the coronavirus) showed that the situation was markedly different a week earlier, with the average nitrogen dioxide level at 29.6 μg/m3.
Two weeks earlier, on April 20-26, the average level of NO2 was 19.8 μg/m3.
In the first week of April it was 20.9 μg/m3, while in the second week of March it had been 43 μg/m3.