Observation about quality of air in Bulgaria

I see it when coming into Varna from the north-west, too. On the ground in Varna there's no sense of it being smoggy, but looking down on the city from the hills, it's invariably covered by a brown pall of smog. Maybe it's high enough not to affect air quality on the ground, but it does appear concerning.

@janemulberry

There are websites, and apps, which show you the air quality in many areas of Bulgaria - one of the better ones is at aqicn(dot)org/map/bulgaria/

@janemulberry

I think any large city has pollution from traffic. The issue isn't whether we can see some pollution haze over Sofia/Varna/Plovdiv, or whether we've coughed when a smoky diesel car/truck/bus drives past. The issue is whether Sofia/Varna/Plovdiv, or Bulgaria in general, has significantly worse pollution levels than elsewhere. Some posters (not you) seem to be using the former as evidence of the latter.

I certainly don't believe it's so. In particular, the EU has imposed air quality standards for all member countries for many years. Bulgaria is held to the same standard as others.

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics … andards_en

In any rankings of polluted European cities there are many worse offenders than Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.

You also have to factor in that vehicle pollution is substantially worse near the main roads, and doesn't disperse equally all over the city. If you live next to the M25 that would be hugely unpleasant compared to living next to Hyde Park.

The air quality I experience at our village house and at our holiday studio in Bansko is excellent.  Plovdiv is noticeably worse, of course, but we live next to the big parks (Youth Hill, Bunardzhik Hill, and the Regatta/Maritsa) and here it's still good.

Apart from anything else, the population of Bulgaria is small, with a very low population density (comparable to Scotland). And let's say a third of the population is in the main cities Sofia/Plovdiv/Varna/Burgas, which means the true population density over the rest of the country is significantly lower. There simply aren't enough people to cause significant pollution levels. You just have to avoid buying a house next to pollution hotspots like Plovdiv's waste incinerator, or Bobov Dol's dirty power station, etc. :-)

Gwyn, I didn't say Bulgaria has a particular air pollution issue.  I said I see a brown haze of smog over Varna when looking down on the city from the plateau. Which unfortunately I add to with my bus and plane travel. Sadly most cities seem to have the same brown smog haze. London does. My home city of Sydney does, quite badly, despite the coastal breezes.

Overall, I doubt air quality is an issue in most of Bulgaria. The air quality map shows it as generally far better than most nearby countries. But still, yes, cities will have a less than perfect air quality, many showing as moderate. I does make me I little glad we didn't buy the city apartment I originally wanted us to have as our main residence!

The air I breathe at our village house in Bulgaria feels massively cleaner than the air I breathe at our UK house, where we're close to a motorway and a mainline train track. Great for commuting, not so great for breathing!

There's more than usual airborne dust during spring planting and autumn harvest seasons in the village, but that's part of rural life. I don't consider it in any way toxic. I haven't been there during winter yet to see if wood smoke is an issue, but I don't think our valley gets inversions, and the weather app I use and check daily never shows air quality issues there.

@janemulberry

I know you were making an observation, rather than generalizing. And my post was making the point that some folks (but not you) seem to take these observations and use them to make more general conclusions about Bulgaria's poor air standards and air quality which I believe are not justified.

I'm very positive about life in Bulgaria (as you are), but I think I'm objective enough to see and discuss negatives too.

For example, I do see some overly smokey diesels around. But not many. And every time I do my annual inspection, there is a proper emissions test... and they seem to be videoing the entire inspection. So I reckon the dodgy diesels are either not as dodgy as we think they are... or they're in the teeny percentage of vehicles where the owner knows how to get a corrupt inspection sticker, or he's happy to drive around in an illegal vehicle (without current inspection and valid insurance).

You're also absolutely right that village life has several airborne hazards! There's the smell of livestock (or their digestive systems) wafting up to one's balcony. There's the piercing sounds of dogs barking and cockerels crowing when you're trying to get some shuteye. The spring season absolutely does have a huge amount of pollen floating about. My partner gets terrible hayfever. I luckily don't, but I have learned that I feel pretty bad if I mow the garden without masking up! And, yes, the winter is definitely wood-burning season. It has a very distinctive smell (which I rather like), so you are very aware of it when you walk around (especially as we've been told how bad it is, and how the UK is trying to get rid of it).

But our village has only 500 people, so I don't think it's enough to significantly damage the air quality. Even in the bad old days when wood was used for cooking, heating hot water, and keeping the house warm. Nowadays, there's a goodly chunk of them who don't use wood petchkas at all. Electric ovens and electric water boilers are now pretty standard, and most of my neighbours are using pellets, gas (underground), oil, or ACs for their heating.

I installed a big pellet stove in our house, but I rarely use it. Mostly, to be honest, because my chimney installation was terrible and it's too smoky... and I'm too lazy to re-do it... and I'm too lazy to empty ash out every day. And I've got 3 AC units, and I found that it's really easy to grab a remote and sort the heating that way. :-) My plan is to be fully electric, but get some solar panels installed... and I think a lot of folks (both city and village) are heading this way.

@gwyn

Oh, yes, the smell of livestock digestive systems! Our near neighbour has a large flock of hens for eggs and also raises a batch for meat every year. Her chicken run is right next to our boundary. Good in a way, as I don't need to stress about our weed seeds getting into their veggie patch, which I would if their garden bordered our place. But on hot summer days there's an unmistakable odour.

I also didn't realise until this year about yellow pollen season! The amount of pollen our walnut tree produced this spring is amazing. I'm hoping that also means another mast year, as we got no walnuts last year!

I like the smell of wood smoke, in the levels a few village stoves will produce. Coal burning smells dirty to me, wood smells clean

Electric with a good solar set up for back-up if the mains goes down should work well. Eventually I'd like to set that up, too. The kitchen will have a new wood burning cookstove, and I'll keep the petcka in the living room as well, because I love having a wood fire and the radiant heat somehow feels so much more warming! But I'll take out the tiny petchka in the big front bedroom and get an AC installed for cooling and heating, and the small back bedroom (my future study) will have electric heat for winter and a fan for summer. If I move the living room petcka to the wall between these rooms (where the chimney is, anyway) that should help warm it.

I do want to do a lot more work on shading the windows that get summer sun to reduce the cooling needs.

One problem with villages is that the local livestock's effluent results in a LOT of flies - it's always a culture shock when we go to our village house in the summer and are besieged by hordes of houseflies/bluebottles/horse flies.  Moving from room to room is like navigating a flypaper obstacle course.....unfortunately the "blue light fly-zappers" just don't the job, and the "electric tennis racquets" soon lose their novelty value!

Thankfully they're not toooo bad where we are. With all the chickens, maggots anywhere in their vicinity get no chance to grow up to be flies!

@janemulberry

If only!  Our village has an abundance of livestock - cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, dogs, and plenty of chickens and turkeys.  The poultry would need snorkels to wade through the говна in some places

Ooh, I learned a new Bulgarian word! Thank you, @JimJ!

Luckily our region tends to have bigger portions of land around the houses and not so much livestock, so the говна is more spread out. Also it's hot and dry, so animal waste dehydrates fast. There are flies for sure, more than I'd like there to be. But nowhere near as bad as Australia, where I grew up.

@janemulberry

Be careful: it's not really a word to use in polite company - лайно is more generally acceptable, or изпражнения if you're feeling a bit hoity-toity

Hello everyone,

Please note that I have created this new thread from your posts on the Bulgaria forum since the topic where they were initially posted is about finding an honest mechanic....

All the best

Bhavna

Thanks for the warning, Jim! I don't think it's a word I am likely to use.