Ecological Association: Statements on Fire in Vinca Insulting and Irresponsible

Fire at the Vinca landfill(BETAPHOTO/EV)

National Ecological Association representative Milenko Jovanovic has said that statements by officials that a fire at the Vinca landfill "is nothing to worry about" were insulting and irresponsible because their was nothing to back these statements as no one had measured the pollution caused by the fire.

A day after the landfill in Vinca caught fire on Aug. 7, Belgrade Mayor Zoran Radojicic said that there was nothing to be afraid of and that no one should panic, that the air was polluted for an hour and that citizens should close their windows. Jovanovic told the Aug. 12 edition of Nedeljnik that the fire in Vinca was an incident that citizens needed to know about in terms of how it happened and how they were threatened by it, which they were, and that the public was denied information because the authorities had reacted belatedly.

Retired pulmonologist Dragana Jovanovic told Nedeljnik that this kind of uncontrolled blaze was dangerous because no one could tell what was being released into the air out of a wide spectrum of thousands of toxic compounds, while extremely toxic and cancer-causing particles posed an enormous risk to people's health.

Commenting on Mayor Radojicic's statement, Jovanovic said that she was appalled by the amount of cynicism and how the authorities had underestimated citizens as there was no official reaction until 6 p.m. When someone finally said something, it only additionally "irritated citizens."