Wood Smoke Tops the List as Belgrade's Air Pollution Fingerprint

A year-long study has produced what researchers call the most chemically complete profile of Belgrade’s PM10 pollution to date, highlighting residential wood burning as the dominant source. Published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the research broke down PM10—particles under ten micrometres—into seven chemical factors using daily filter samples collected from June 2023 to May 2024 at Ada Marina on Ada Ciganlija. Led by Bojana Petrović of the Vinča Institute, the team quantified 34 chemical species and applied the U.S. EPA’s Positive Matrix Factorization model v5.0. Biomass burning accounted for 21% annually and 34% in heating season, October to April, driven by levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan tracers.