The details come in Prime Minister Luc Frieden's response to a number of parliamentary questions about the LU-Alert messages sent out in the context of the fires in Belgium last weekend.
The first message on Saturday was purely informational, signalling that there might be a smell of smoke in the country. That message was also designed to prevent the 112 emergency number from being overwhelmed with calls. Since further calls came in the following day, however, the decision was taken to reissue the message, this time via SMS as well, in order to reach a wider public. At that stage, the measured values were still within the intended threshold levels.
A formal warning, Frieden pointed out, would only be issued if fine-dust levels were above a certain value for two to three days, which had not been the case here. The measured value only exceeded the threshold on Sunday.
Frieden also clarified that this had been an isolated and short-lived incident, and that the risk to the general population had remained low throughout. There had, in addition, been no notable rise in hospital consultations linked to the episode.
