Fight against low-stack emission in the light of European Union and Polish legal conditions

Air pollution is one of the most important problems of the contemporary society. One of the vital reasons for bad air quality are particulate matters and gases, generated by municipal and household sector, coming from coal-fired boiler houses and heating stoves used in houses. This source of pollution is named as low-stack emission. The situation is especially difficult in the regions of high population density, such as South Poland. In this region air belongs to the most polluted in the European Union. The concentration of some substance dangerous for health periodically exceeds the standards by several times. This problem stopped being an issue raised only by the scientists and indicated in case of publication of reports on the condition of the environment, but it became a subject of a dynamic social discussion, gaining a wide social and legal dimension. In relation with the intention of taking measures for the improvement of air quality by local authorities, government and a wider and wider group of residents upset by the continuing state of things, the subject of reducing low-stack emission requires in-depth research. This problem has already been noticed on the EU, domestic and regional level. The domestic and regional authorities, supported by the European Union, through numerous programs of air protection, take remedy measures aimed at making positive changes regarding the concentration decrease of air pollution. Their results are not satisfactory, though. The objective of the paper is to review the most important legal regulations and other program initiatives directed to the reduction of low-stack emission in the last five years. In the paper the literature studies and analysis of current legal regulations are used, related to low-stack emission.