Greeks Burning More Wood and Garbage Amid Financial Collapse Leads to More Pollution, Health Risks

Air pollution is usually not the first consequence that comes to mind when thinking about an economic crisis, but new research out of economically downtrodden Greece has found that as the price of heating oil increases, Greek residents are switching to burning cheaper material such as wood and waste materials to warm their homes, which is having an effect on the environment and possibly public health.

A team of researchers led by University of Southern California's Constantinos Sioutas found that in Greece's most economically devastated areas, the concentration of fine air particles has risen by 30 percent since the nation's financial crisis began. These fine air particles, which have a diameter about one-thirtieth of a strand of human hair, are especially dangerous because they can get lodged deep into the tissue of the lungs. Prolonged exposure to such air pollution can potentially lead to long-term health effects, the researchers warn.

"People need to stay warm, but face decreasing employment and rising fuel costs," Sioutas said. "The problem is economic hardship has compelled residents to burn low quality fuel, such as wood and waste materials, that pollutes the air."

Greece faces a cripplingly high unemployment rate, which exceeded 27 percent in 2013. Meanwhile, in the wake of the nation's financial crisis, a fuel tax increase has risen the cost of heating oil to nearly three times what it was before the tax, the researchers report.

According the the air samples Sioutas and his team collected, Greeks are burning more wood and garbage to stay warm. The researchers tested the air for fine particles in the winter of 2012 and again in the winter of 2013, finding a dramatic increase in the concentration of fine particles in the air since the Greek financial crisis began.

The researchers report a rise in fine air particle concentrations from 26 to 36 micrograms per square meter over the study period. The US Environmental Protection Agency says the average in the US is 20 micrograms per square meter over a 24 hour period.

In Greece, the concentration of these fine air particulates was highest in the evenings, presumably when people were burning fuel for warmth.

"Wood's cheap, but it's having a major negative impact on air quality," Sioutas said. The research team found a fivefold increase in carcinogenic organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons during their study period, as well as a two-to-five-fold increase in the airborne concentrations of organic compounds such as levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan, the presence of which has been strongly correlated in past research to oxidative stress in human cells, which is linked to inflammation, aging and the development of age-related diseases, the researchers said in a news release.

Sioutas and hic colleagues' work is published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.