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It is important to remember that children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions are particularly vulnerable to air pollution. These groups experience the greatest health impacts from poor air quality.

The main source of PM_2,5 emissions in Slovakia is not industry or transport, but residential heating with solid fuels. Household heating accounts for around three-quarters of total PM_2,5 emissions. The main causes are outdated boilers, poor-quality fuel, and improper heating practices. Due to local geographical conditions, air pollutants often do not disperse efficiently and instead accumulate in populated areas.

How is the air quality in your municipality? Explore the results of the study in the interactive map:
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Y1bc0/7/ 

What Can We Do to Improve the Air We Breathe? Everyone can contribute to cleaner air by taking a few simple steps:

• Burn only properly seasoned, dry wood.
• Never burn household waste.
• Maintain your boiler and chimney regularly.
• Have your heating system cleaned and inspected.
• Learn and apply proper wood-burning techniques.

These and many other practical recommendations are available in the Proper Heating brochure:
https://populair.sk/storage/web-documents/1442/spravne-vykurovanie-brozura-2025.pdf 

The study was carried out through a collaboration between the Institute of Health Analyses, the Institute for Environmental Policy, Comenius University Bratislava, Brno University of Technology, and the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute. For the first time, it estimates the loss of life expectancy caused by long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM_2,5) for nearly 3,000 municipalities across Slovakia.

More information about the methodology, results, and interpretation of the findings can be found in the scientific paper "Quantification of Life Expectancy Loss from Air Pollution in Slovakia", published in the journal npj Clean Air and available online:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44407-026-00085-2