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

The report argues that doubling the SO2 emissions limit would lead to significant increases in PM2.5 exposure and mercury deposition, resulting in approximately 3,300 premature deaths, with a high concentration of impacts in the Gauteng region.

• Doubling the SO2 emissions limit from 500mg/Nm3 to 1000mg/Nm3 would allow Eskom to emit an additional 280,000 tonnes of SO2 annually, totaling 5.5 million tonnes over the plants' lifetimes.
• The proposed change in standards is projected to cause approximately 3,300 premature deaths (95% confidence interval: 3,000 to 3,500), with annual excess deaths peaking at 170 in 2025-26.
• The health impacts are distributed across several causes: 952 deaths from acute lower respiratory infections, 716 from ischaemic heart disease, 593 from chronic obstructive respiratory disease, 524 from lung cancer, 347 from stroke, and 315 from diabetes.
• Gauteng is a primary area of concern due to its proximity to polluting plants; approximately 1,000 of the 3,300 projected excess deaths would occur in this region.
• The Medupi power plant is projected to be the largest contributor to premature deaths, followed by Matimba, Kendal, and Majuba.
• Weakening the SO2 standard would likely increase mercury emissions by 15,000 kilograms per year, as it may allow operators to avoid installing SO2 scrubbers which also capture mercury.
• Mercury deposition is projected to exceed health-risk levels (above 125mg/ha/year) over an area of 89,000km², affecting 3.4 million people.

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} }