Baku - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the air quality like at post (good/moderate/bad)? Are there seasonal air quality issues? Does the air quality have an impact on health?
see above - Sep 2023
Air quality here is constantly bad. - Aug 2023
Air quality ranges. It can be in the green during the summer, but it can also be in the red and beyond in the winter. One thing on our side here is there is ALWAYS wind blowing that keeps a lot of the smog and pollution moving along instead of sitting on top of us all the time. That said, several people at post suffer from chronic sinus/respiratory issues and sore throats year round. - Aug 2023
Not great - some days rival Delhi or Beijing - but the wind tends to blow all the pollution away on most days. It does get bad sometimes. - Jun 2023
Baku is a windy city so that keeps the air fairly fresh. There have been some summer days where the air is thick with dust, but generally it's fine. - Jun 2021
Usually the air is pretty good. We sometimes get dust storms from the quarry or Turkmenistan, but usually its not bad. - Jan 2019
The air quality is okay. It’s a big city with lots of older cars driving around, a little bit of sand in the air as it doesn’t rain too often, and the smell of oil from the Caspian Sea sometimes lingers in the air, so of course, the air is not as clean as in some countries or outside in the countryside, but we never had any issues. There was never a day when the air was too polluted to go outside. - Jul 2018
Air seems great to me. I love the beautiful, clear blue skies in summer. - May 2018
I would say moderate to bad. It's an oil economy, so there's a lot of pollution in the air from that. It's also a very windy city, so we get dust and sand in the air. I did have problems my first spring here with my contact lenses, but I switched to a stronger cleaner and it hasn't bothered me since. - Mar 2017
Poor - people with no history of asthma or allergies develop them quickly here. Mold is pervasive and cannot be avoided. There is no longer the lingering smell of oil in the air constantly but the air is really bad quite often with smog. - Jul 2015
I've heard that the air quality is bad, but compared to our previous post (Cairo), it's not so bad. However, it's not something I'm sensitive to, so I haven't taken much note. - Jan 2013
Any child with Asthma or severe allergies shouldn't come here. Air quality here is atrocious. The oil here is always evident by smell and you can see it in the air. It comes from all the exhausts from the Lada's and buses. Don't drive with the windows down in the car! There is never a time that your clothes and your hair are not drenched like gas or oil smell! YUCK. - Dec 2011
Very unhealthy. - Sep 2010
It is considered bad, and one family recently curtailed because of asthma problems from the dust here. - Aug 2010
