THE spa town of Rabka-Zdroj, in southern Poland, has been known as a treatment centre for children since the 19th century. These days it also has terrible air. In January 2017 the level of benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogenic compound, was found to be 28 times normal limits. If this goes on, Rabka-Zdroj could lose its spa-town status, which needs to be renewed every ten years. Air pollution is “our silent enemy”, says Zbigniew Doniec of the town’s Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.

Rabka-Zdroj is hardly alone; across swathes of Poland, winter means smog. An astonishing 33 of Europe’s 50 most-polluted towns are in Poland, as ranked by the World Health Organisation in 2016. Among them is Katowice, which will host the next UN climate summit in December. Coal heating in houses is largely to blame; to save money, people burn waste coal and slurry. (Defying the law, others simply burn rubbish.) In small towns, dark fumes rise from chimneys, giving the cold air a toasty edge. On bad days, officials in Warsaw advise residents to stay indoors and keep their windows closed. Gazeta Wyborcza, a newspaper, recently gave its readers a free smog mask.

The governing Law and Justice (PiS) party champions the coal industry, which employs some 90,000 Poles. “Coal is the foundation of our energy sector and we cannot and do not want to abandon it,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister, in his inaugural speech to parliament on December 12th. His new programme for Silesia, a densely populated industrial region in south-west Poland, includes two new coal mines. As Warsaw seeks to wean itself off Russian gas, coal is presented as the patriotic alternative.

Smog has become a household word, and officials are starting to take it seriously. Emissions standards for coal heaters were tightened in October. Some regions are going further—an “anti-smog” law adopted in 2015 enables them to make their own rules on household heating. On November 30th 2017 the regional assembly in Wroclaw, a city in western Poland, voted to ban the most-polluting types of coal. Some towns already offer subsidies to help people swap their ageing coal burners for cleaner alternatives. Yet without firm action in Warsaw, Poles are in for more smoggy winters.