Greenpeace hangs banner on Ministry of Environment building

Environmental organization Greenpeace hung a banner on Wednesday on the building of the Ministry of the Environment, which depicts Minister Maciej Grabowski, who is covering his mouth, his ears and his eyes with a message below "Smog is poisoning us, why is the minister not reacting?" "The minister's negligence of any attempt to solve the problem of air pollution is outrageous and is threatening the health of all of us. We breathe the toxic cocktail that causes premature death of about 45,000 people a year," said Iwo Łoś, expert for energy at Greenpeace Polska. The activists claim that the National Program for Air Protection prepared by the Ministry is non-binding and misleading. In their view, the document contains inaccurate data and does not include emissions from all sources of air pollution, it excludes coal power plants, for example. "The Ministry of the Environment must take into account the pollution produced by the energy and industry sectors," Łoś said. Polish and EU standards allow 35 days a year, during which the average daily concentration of PM10 can be higher than 50 micrograms per cubic meter. The limit of 35 days in Warsaw was already surpassed in March.