The Sofia Weekly

Detected levels of of SO₂ were 300 micrograms per cubic meter over permissible levels.  The article does not state what the permissible levels are in Bulgaria.  However, 300 µg m³ alone are a little short of Alberta’s limit for SO₂ content in ambient air, 450 µg m³ for a one-hour average.  At that limit pulmonary function will be affected.  At a 150 µg m³ for a one-hour average, begonias, bluegrass, aspens and forests will be harmed.   If the upper limit for SO₂ content in ambient air in Bulgaria is the same as it is in Alberta, then the people of Galabovo were put at a serious risk of having to breathe air containing 750 µg m³ for a one-hour average.  The article does not state whether any of Galbovo’s residents got sick or worse.
The high levels of SO₂ detected in the centre of Galabovo were caused by two nearby power generating plants. ([1] Story)

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Note by folc.ca: It makes one scared to know that residents of towns like [2] Bruderheim and Lamont don’t have air-quality monitors in the centers of their communities, right?

Update 2007 03 29:

Sulphur dioxide level in Bulgaria’s Galabovo is not above the norm

FOCUS News Agency

Galabovo. The automatic measuring device put in downtown Galabovo (Southern Bulgaria) did not read high levels of sulphur dioxide in the town, the State Agency “Civil Protection” at the Bulgarian Ministry of State Policy for Disaster and Accidents told Focus Agency.
At 16.00 the sulphur dioxide rate in the air was within the norm, which is 500 micrograms per cubic meter. [The limit in Alberta is 450 µg m³ for a one-hour average.  At that limit pulmonary function will be affected. — folc.ca]
The teams of the State Agency stopped their work. ([3] Source and more info)

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Related stories:

• [4] Sulphur Dioxide Poisons Bulgarian Village
• [5] Enel Defends Position over Sulphur Dioxide Pollution in Bulgarian Village
• [6] Clean Coal Processing (SO2 removal)