Abstract
Air pollution is a global problem that has caused serious problems of the global
climate changes, the worldwide epidemics, and in adverse effects in human health,
environmental ecosystems and food security. Air pollution is caused by the presence of the toxic chemicals in the air. Different climatic, physical and chemical
factors significantly affect to the circulation and the transfer of various pollutants in
the air. The increased circulation of chemicals in the air, including toxic metals and
organic compounds, had increased the interest of scientists in recognizing the
factors that effect to the levels of contaminants, their emission source and the health
effects of human beings and environment. It is also followed with crops damages
and the loss of the agriculture productivity.
This book provides an overview of air quality of Albania. Albania is a small
country with an area of 28,748 sq km positioned in south-east Europe and in the
western part of the Balkan Peninsula. With an average altitude of about 700 meters
above the sea, Albania is characterized by mountainous landscape intersected by the
valleys of seven rivers running from the east to the west and discharged to the
Adriatic Sea. Albania is characterized by Mediterranean climate in the West and
Mediterranean-continental climate in the East. The average annual rainfall is about
1430 mm.
Due to the extensive utilization of natural resources and old technology during
the past decades of 19’s (1960 to 1990), the exposure to the contaminants was
relatively high. After the 1990s, when Albania changed from a totalitarian system to
democracy, the old industry was closed or abandoned. The chemicals deposited in
the abandoned chemical plants and/or in the processing plants of various minerals,
untreated disposal wastes and dumps distributed randomly over a relatively wide
area around the plants and/or mines, had caused high environmental pollution. On
the other hand, the activities in ex-industrial sites of copper, chromium, iron-nickel
and oil industries have produced several million tons of industrial waste impacting
the surrounding environment that had adversely affected the natural resources,
followed by a potential health risk for the people continuously exposed to the
polluted areas. The lack of a national network for air quality monitoring as well as
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Air pollution is a global problem that has caused serious problems of the global
climate changes, the worldwide epidemics, and in adverse effects in human health,
environmental ecosystems and food security. Air pollution is caused by the presence of the toxic chemicals in the air. Different climatic, physical and chemical
factors significantly affect to the circulation and the transfer of various pollutants in
the air. The increased circulation of chemicals in the air, including toxic metals and
organic compounds, had increased the interest of scientists in recognizing the
factors that effect to the levels of contaminants, their emission source and the health
effects of human beings and environment. It is also followed with crops damages
and the loss of the agriculture productivity.
This book provides an overview of air quality of Albania. Albania is a small
country with an area of 28,748 sq km positioned in south-east Europe and in the
western part of the Balkan Peninsula. With an average altitude of about 700 meters
above the sea, Albania is characterized by mountainous landscape intersected by the
valleys of seven rivers running from the east to the west and discharged to the
Adriatic Sea. Albania is characterized by Mediterranean climate in the West and
Mediterranean-continental climate in the East. The average annual rainfall is about
1430 mm.
Due to the extensive utilization of natural resources and old technology during
the past decades of 19’s (1960 to 1990), the exposure to the contaminants was
relatively high. After the 1990s, when Albania changed from a totalitarian system to
democracy, the old industry was closed or abandoned. The chemicals deposited in
the abandoned chemical plants and/or in the processing plants of various minerals,
untreated disposal wastes and dumps distributed randomly over a relatively wide
area around the plants and/or mines, had caused high environmental pollution. On
the other hand, the activities in ex-industrial sites of copper, chromium, iron-nickel
and oil industries have produced several million tons of industrial waste impacting
the surrounding environment that had adversely affected the natural resources,
followed by a potential health risk for the people continuously exposed to the
polluted areas. The lack of a national network for air quality monitoring as well as
xiii