Health burden of air pollutant exposure in Belgrade: a European region with high circulatory and malignant mortality rates.

Institute of Public Health of Belgrade (IPH) was established in 1961, and is currently the leading institution for preventive healthcare in Serbia, employing over 400 people. Its mission is to promote health, protect the environment, improve life quality of its community, conduct research on issues related to public health in Belgrade and provide support and guidance to public authorities. The Laboratory for Human Ecology and Ecotoxicology operates as part of IPH and it primarily deals with air pollution issues. It has been accredited according to ISO 17025 for performing over 350 analyses of food and environmental samples. Daily air quality monitoring, initiated in Belgrade area 30 years ago, is nowadays conducted on 30 measuring sites and comprises regular measurements of SO2, NOx, CO, O3, BTEX, formaldehyde, acrolein, volatile organic compounds (VOC), PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, as well as determination of heavy metal, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), organic and elemental carbon content of particulate matter. Over the past decades, IPH has established cooperation with some renowned global organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the European Comission’s Joint Research Center, as well as with many regional research institutions dealing with complex environmental and health issues affecting this region. As a result of research conducted by the scientific consortium lead by IPH, the monograph on Air Quality Plan for Belgrade was published in 2014, as a document presenting for the first time the comprehensive multiyear analysis of air pollution in the Serbian capital.