Vinca
A Serbian pulmonologist, Dr Tatjana Radosavljevic, said on Aug. 8 that smoke from a landfill fire in the Belgrade suburb in Vinca was an obvious health hazard, adding that a failure by the authorities to alarm Belgraders was a big mistake.
"A safety instruction that people should keep their windows closed came too late, when the smoke had already penetrated homes and it made no sense to keep them closed. The warning should have been issued on time, and it wasn't," Dr Radosavljevic said in an interview with the Danas daily, published on Aug. 11.
The smoke contains sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which will certainly aggravate all chronic pulmonary conditions, the pulmonologist explained.
Dr Radosavljevic expects cardiac patients, too, to see their doctors for health problems, because they make another group of patients to be affected by the smoke, just like patients with central nervous system dysfunctions. When asked when the concentration of toxic air pollutants would be reduced, she said that it's "anyone's guess."
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