Ecology, Energy, Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The draft Industrial Pollution Act will enact standards that will be applied to enterprises operating in major industry sectors.

According to the European Environmental Bureau, there are 52,000 major industrial enterprises in Europe that significantly affect public health. The bureau has estimated that more than 150 million euros will have to be spent for compensating for such health damages.

Minister of environment Keit Pentus noted that Estonia has 256 such major producers.

“If we were to transpose the data from the European Environmental Bureau upon Estonia, we could claim that the impact caused by emissions from industrial enterprises on human health could be measured with 800 million euros,” she explained. “Such impact includes, for example, allergies that require treatment, diseases, deterioration in one’s capacity for work,” said Pentus.