30 Bulgarian Cities More Dusty than They Should Be

Some 30 cities in Bulgaria have registered concentrations of fine dust in their air that are above the allowed limits, according to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment.

The information, published in Sunday's Trud daily, states that the lists includes almost all major cities, including the capital Sofia, as well as cities such as Plovdiv, Pernik and Vidin.

The European Commission's maximally allowed limit is 50 micrograms per cubic meter of atmospheric air as an average value for 24h. This amount is allowed to be exceeded at most 35 times per year.

Bulgaria is among some 20 of the 27 EU member states against which might be started an infringement procedure regarding the poor quality of air.

The Ministry of Environment announced that at this time Bulgaria can postpone the launch of the infringement procedure if it presents the EC an action plan to deal with the problem.

According to the ministry, the chief sourche of dust particles in the air in Bulgarian cities and towns is heating using coal and wood, which is cheaper but more polluting. They mentioned public gasification as a measure against this.

Another source is claimed to be irregular cleaning of street dust and construction mud (during the summer).


I can't beleive they have gone to the trouble of printing this

Only 30 ? are they having a laugh and they have only just noticed

Bulgarians working with Gas?? That's interesting! It would be like the London Blitz during WW2 with all the explosions going off! Hope the Gas mains pipes that they are laying are flexible as BG's have a problem with straight lines and levels...........