Health professionals on derogations for coal power plants: no exemptions for pollution

Bulgarian health community highlights the huge health benefits of refusing giving derogations or pollution exemptions for Bulgrarian coal power plants for the sake of (1) improving air quality, (2) reducing the incidence of respiratory, cardiovascular and other diseases related to air pollution, and (3) reducing long-term economic costs for the health system.

On Friday 30 November 2018, Bulgarian medical experts, health and patients organisation sent out their recommendations on the process of ‘derogations’. Derogations are requests by coal plant operators in Bulgaria to be exempted from rules established to further limit health-harming air polluting emissions, as foreseen in the EU law regulating large combustion plants, including coal plants (Derogations according to Art. 15 sec. 4 of the EU Directive on Industrial Emissions (2010/75/EU).

The letter was signed by 7 main Bulgarian and EU health organisations. Full letter in English and Bulgarian