ATHENS – The good news is that the air quality in Athens isn’t terrible. The bad news is that it’s just moderate, said data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on just where cities rank.

The cleanest cities in terms of air pollution over the last two years (2020-2021) are Umea in Sweden and Faro and Funchal in Portugal,said Kathimerini, the survey looking at more than 340 European cities using data from measuring stations.

Athens ranks 227th in the list, indicating that there are remaining problems with what people are breathing. Evangelos Gerasopoulos Director of Atmospheric Chemistry at the National Observatory of Athens, said, “It has become much better in recent years, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.”

Since 2019, the Observatory has set up over 100 air quality monitoring stations across the country. “Greece is located in a region with a high air pollution background due to neighboring Eastern European countries, while meteorological conditions also favor the transfer of pollution across borders,” he also said.