According to the latest European Commission Report “Status of Environment and Climate in the
Western Balkans” the mortality rate that can be linked to air pollution in the Western Balkans is more
than twice as high as the EU 27 average. The same report states that the dominant impact on mortality
has PM2.5. Valjevo is one of the cities in Serbia in which air quality has belonged to the third category
(excessively polluted air) for many years due to exceeding the limit values for PM10 and PM2.5. In
this paper, average concentrations and time and seasonal variations of particulate matter (PM10 and
PM2.5) as well as gaseous pollutants (SO2, NO2, NO, NOx, CO) measured at the automatic air quality
monitoring station Valjevo in the period from December 2020 till May 2022 were analyzed. The daily
mean concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 were 56.5 and 40.9 μg m−3
, with maximum daily mean values
of 318.8 and 246.4 μg m-3, respectively. The highest mean concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 was
measured during the winter period (78.3 and 64.2 μg m–3
), followed by autumn, spring and summer
with the lowest measured mean concentration (29.6 and 13.4 μg m–3
). During the winter period, the
major part of the PM10 mass was in fine mode (PM2.5) (82.9%) rather than coarse mode (PM10-2.5)
(17.1%), which can be attributed to the intensive combustion of biomass and fossil fuels for heating
in households, industry and the public sector during this period.
