The protesters said that they had been warning Croatian state institutions of their problem for eight years and that now they were considering acts of civil disobedience such as a blockade of the border crossing.
The civil society groups that organised the rally presented seven demands to solve the problem of air pollution and called on the government to hold an urgent meeting with local officials.
They expect the meeting, to be held in the next two weeks, to result in an agreement on steps to be taken next.
The protesters said they expected the government to hold a meeting with representatives of the Brod Refinery, Brod municipal officials and officials of the Bosnian Serb entity government and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to agree with them steps to be taken to modernise the refinery.
Ilija Jovicic, head of the town which Bosnian Serb authorities today call Brod (Bosanski Brod) was also in Slavonski Brod today, saying that his position was that the refinery, which is owned by the Russian Zarubezhneft company, should work on improving its operating conditions in line with its technological licence.
Even though they supported the protesters via social networks, there were no Croatian government officials at the rally, the biggest protest held in the town in the last 25 years.