Air quality and health impacts of doubling the South African standards for SO2 emissions from power plants

This report by the Greenpeace Global Air Pollution Unit assesses the public health and environmental consequences of a proposal by South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries to double the Minimum Emissions Standards (MES) for SO2 from 500mg/Nm3 to 1000mg/Nm3 for power plants and industrial sources.

• Doubling the SO2 emissions limit would allow Eskom to emit an additional 280,000 tonnes of SO2 annually, totaling 5.5 million tonnes over the plants' lifetimes. This change is projected to increase population exposure to PM2.5 caused by Eskom’s coal-fired power plants by 70%, primarily due to secondary sulfate formation.
• The proposed increase in the SO2 MES limit is estimated to cause approximately 3,300 premature deaths (with a 95% confidence interval of 3,000 to 3,500). The peak annual excess health impact is projected to be 170 premature deaths in 2025-26.
• The premature deaths attributed to the weakened standard are categorized by cause: 952 from acute lower respiratory infections, 716 from ischemic heart disease, 593 from chronic obstructive respiratory disease, 524 from lung cancer, 347 from stroke, and 315 from diabetes.
• Gauteng is a significant area of concern due to the proximity of Eskom's power plants. Approximately 1,000 of the 3,300 projected excess deaths would occur in Gauteng, where Eskom's emissions already cause about 420 premature deaths per year.
• Medupi is identified as the power plant causing the most health impact, followed by Matimba, Kendal, and Majuba. Specifically, Medupi is associated with a projected 1,563 cumulative premature deaths.
• Weakening the SO2 standard would likely lead to higher mercury emissions because it may allow operators to avoid installing SO2 scrubbers, which also capture mercury. This would result in a projected 13,000kg of excess mercury deposition locally in South Africa, with the remaining 240,000kg entering the global cycle.
• Mercury deposition from existing Eskom plants, as well as the future completed Kusile and Medupi plants, is projected to exceed health-risk levels (above 125mg/ha/yr) over an area of 89,000km², affecting 3.4 million inhabitants.

APA

Myllyvirta, L. (2019). Air quality and health impacts of doubling the South African standards for SO2 emissions from power plants. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annexure-3_Lauri-Myllyvirta_Report_July-2019.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Myllyvirta, Lauri. Air quality and health impacts of doubling the South African standards for SO2 emissions from power plants. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2019. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annexure-3_Lauri-Myllyvirta_Report_July-2019.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Myllyvirta |first1=Lauri |title=Air quality and health impacts of doubling the South African standards for SO2 emissions from power plants |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=3 July 2019 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annexure-3_Lauri-Myllyvirta_Report_July-2019.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{myllyvirta2019air, author = {Myllyvirta, Lauri}, title = {{Air quality and health impacts of doubling the South African standards for SO2 emissions from power plants}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2019}, month = jul, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annexure-3_Lauri-Myllyvirta_Report_July-2019.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }