Air quality in Moldova: where to check and what to do

Short answer. Moldova's Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring Authority (AMM) publishes a daily air quality bulletin, with a next-day forecast, for Chișinău and Bălți ¹². Phaenyx found no live national air quality map, no published index scale and no official advice for bad air days. Fine particles in cities average about 13 µg/m³, more than twice the WHO guideline ³⁵.

Where can I check air quality right now?

AMM posts a dated PDF bulletin on meteo.md under the heading "daily bulletin on pollution and air pollution forecast in Chișinău and Bălți" ¹. The bulletin of 26 October 2026 contained ²:

• readings from manual monitoring posts in Chișinău and Bălți, given as multiples of the maximum allowed concentration (CMA), with a pollution map of each city;
• daily values from two automatic stations, a traffic station in Chișinău and a suburban background station at Mateuți, Rezina district;
• an air quality index label for each automatic station;
• a forecast for the next day, and the ambient gamma radiation dose rate.

Manual monitoring is not carried out on Sundays and public holidays ². Outside these two cities, Phaenyx found no public source of current readings.

What do the index levels mean?

The bulletin gives an AQI label for each automatic station; on 26 October 2026 it read "moderate" (Moderat) in Chișinău and "acceptable" (Acceptabil) at Mateuți ². Phaenyx found no official explanation of this index's levels or health advice.

What the bulletin does state are the limit values, set by Law No. 98 of 14 April 2022 on ambient air quality ²:

For manual posts, the sanitary norm is exceeded when a reading is above 1 CMA ². For example, the 26 October bulletin reported carbon monoxide up to 2.0 times the CMA in Chișinău on 23-24 October ². See Air quality index explained.

How polluted is the air on average?

The population-weighted median of Moldovan cities shows about 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5 (annual mean 2021-2023) ³, more than twice the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ ⁵. Nitrogen dioxide is about 4.7 µg/m³ ⁴, below the WHO guideline of 10 µg/m³ ⁵. That NO2 figure is a regional background over roughly 80 km: a busy street will be higher.

What should I do on a bad air day, or with smoke or dust?

Check the next-day forecast in the AMM bulletin, which says whether the weather will help pollutants build up or disperse ². Phaenyx found no official Moldovan advice for bad air days, wildfire smoke or dust; see our guides:

• For people at higher risk, see People sensitive to polluted air and Children and polluted air.
• For smoke, see Wildfire smoke, A clean-air room at home and Masks for smoke.
• For dust or a pollution episode, see Dust storms and Pollution episodes.

How official warnings reach you is on our Moldova alerts page. A household plan can note who at home is sensitive to polluted air and where to stay on bad days.

Frequently asked questions

Does Moldova have an air quality index?

The AMM bulletin gives an AQI label for its automatic stations, but Phaenyx found no published scale for it ².

Is air quality measured on weekends?

Manual posts are not monitored on Sundays and public holidays ².

What is the legal limit for fine particles?

25 µg/m³ as a 24-hour value for PM2.5, under Law No. 98/2022 ².

Which cities are covered?

The daily bulletin covers Chișinău and Bălți, plus an automatic station at Mateuți ¹².