Not a good place to picnic. Pollution levels through the roof near Hafnarfjordur Iceland. PIC Simon Collison
[dropcap style=”one” color=”grey” text=”S” /]urprise, surprise. Turns out the level of pollution in certain places in Iceland is on the Eastern European scale of things. You know, the former communist countries where any crummy place blowing out jets of thick black smoke 24/7 was considered a marvelous success.
Now, this is both good news and bad. Bad for everyone both here and elsewhere since we all breathe, more or less, the same air. But the good aspect has to do with the truth. You see, the official picture of Iceland is one of cleanliness and untainted beauty. Which is a blatant lie as new research from the Icelandic Institute of Natural History proves.
It shows very high levels of pollutants near the town of Hafnarfjordur which incidentally is a spot every foreigner coming to Reykjavik city from Keflavik has to drive through. The contamination levels are actually higher than in most neighboring countries and can only be seen on the same scale in the former communist countries of Europe.
Sadly, there is no equipment in this country to measure pollution levels on a regular basis and only a handful of research done. All show much higher levels of pollution on this island than is considered normal. Lax regulations are certainly to blame.
In any case, do not consider the area south of Hafnarfjordur town for your picnic.
