Sweden's Ambassador to BiH Anders Hagelberg announced today that, within the "Let’s Talk About Air" campaign, in the coming days the facade of the Embassy of Sweden's building in Sarajevo will be illuminated in different colors, depending on the levels of air pollution.

He pointed out that brown and purple color will indicate a dangerous level of pollution, orange will indicate a level dangerous for sensitive people and children, red will be for the very dangerous level of pollution for all, yellow for a slightly better quality of air, and green for acceptable air quality.

“When I first came to BiH last winter, I was, to say the least, shocked by poor air quality, and although some say that this winter it is not so terrible, it is actually deadly,”, Mr. Hagelberg said.

He added that 223 people (per 100,000 inhabitants) had died according to the World Health Organization's data on air pollution in BiH and it is incomprehensible that this is not the country's first priority.

“We are determined to do as much as we can to raise awareness of this problem, but also to improve the situation practically, though the most important thing in all this is political leadership,” Mr. Hagelberg said.

Along with him, the campaign was also supported by the FBiH Minister of Environment and Tourism, the RS Assistant Minister of Environment, Head of the UN Mission to BiH, Head of EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative in BiH, Ambassadors of Italy, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Deputy Ambassador of Japan, and Deputy Head of the Mission of the US Embassy to BiH.

The “Let’s Talk About Air” campaign is conducted by the Swedish Environment Agency in BiH (SEPA), in cooperation with the FBiH Hydrometeorological Institute and the Hydrometeorological Institute of RS.