There is a shortage of coal in Poland, a country where three million households use coal to heat their homes. But around two-thirds of the coal that people burn at home used to come from Russia. Now that import is almost at zero. As a reaction, the government has loosened environmental protection rules, among other things it will now be allowed to burn dirty lignite. A hard blow for activists who worked for tougher rules. One of them is Jola Sitarz-Wójcicka who lives in Zakopane. – There are hardly any rules anymore that protect the air. You can burn all kinds of coal. Even the worst kind. And there is no control, she says. Health risk for the children On the days when it is really bad, Poland has among the worst air pollution in the world. Something noticeable in the children: – They have infections in the upper respiratory tract. They have runny or blocked noses. It makes a hissing sound when they breathe and very often they have difficulty breathing, says general practitioner Lidia Kołodziej. See the feature in the player.
t4-general
Severe air pollution in Poland: “We are suffocating from smog”
