TIRANA: When Albania's communist dictatorship collapsed in the late 1980s there were only 2,000 cars in the country, and horses and carts were a more common form of transport in the capital, Tirana.

In the 15 years since it was released from its straitjacket, the city, together with the rest of the country, has paid the price of freedom. Choked with some 300,000 cars, lorries and buses which burn fuel banned in the EU, Tirana is now seen as the most polluted capital in Europe.

The move to auto-anarchy has reached crisis point, with the streets swamped by thousands of old Mercedes stolen from western Europe. In the rush hour the smoke and dust is as thick as fog, the air heavy with lead and tiny particles called PM10s, which harm the lungs and cause cancer.

On an average morning, the volume of PM10s is more than 10 times the World Health Organization limit. Sometimes it is much worse. Agron Deliu, an air quality expert from the health ministry, said he had calculated that 35,000 tons of air pollutants were emitted from traffic in Tirana in 2003 - that is 49kg per person. -Dawn/The Guardian News Service.