Air pollution in Albania kills at least 200 every year: WHO

TIRANA — Illnesses linked to air pollution cause the death of at least two hundred people every year in Albania, mostly in the capital Tirana, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) published on Thursday.

The WHO study said various diseases were caused by excess air pollution, which is well above international and European Union standards.

"At least 200 people die every year in Albania (because of air pollution), most of them in Tirana, where pollution levels are very high," the study said.

It added that a "considerable number of inhabitants of the Albanian capital, above all children, have been at risk of respiratory diseases caused by pollution."

Albanian Health Minister Nard Ndoka warned: "The pollution shortens for at least two years the life expectancy of Tirana's inhabitants."

Experts say that the main cause of pollution are old and used cars using low quality fuel, whose numbers have surged since the fall of communism, when private vehicle ownership was banned, while other means of public transport are almost non-existent.