With the purpose of aligning the Cypriot legislation with Council Directive 89/369/EEC on the prevention of air pollution from new municipal waste incineration plants, the present Regulations aim at establishing measures to reduce and prevent pollution from the operation of existing municipal waste incineration plants in order to protect human health and the environment. In general, the Regulations prescribe that the existing municipal incinerators in Cyprus must obtain a waste gas emission permit by the competent authority. Permission is granted once the competent authority has ascertained that all necessary measures to protect public health and the environment have been taken. Under these Regulations, the municipal incinerators should be designed and operated so as to achieve the fullest possible incineration; the gas emission produced should to be placed at a temperature of at least 850 C for at least two seconds before passing into the atmosphere. The plants must be designed, equipped and operated so as not to overpass the prescribed emission limit values for a range of pollutants such as dust, organic matter, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide, metals and dioxins. These limit values are set as conditions to the permit issued by the Minister. Every existing municipal waste incineration plant should be equipped with auxiliary burners which are to be switched on automatically when gas emission temperatures drop below from 850 C. On incineration, the operators shall conduct measurements of the pollutants mentioned above in order to achieve compliance with the emission limit values. If these measurements show that the emission limit values are exceeded, the operator is obliged to inform, without delay, the Minister who shall ensure that the incineration plant shall interrupt its operation if the conditions on the permit are not fulfilled. Measurements taken to determine concentrations of air pollutants contained in gas emissions must be representative and the measurement methods used have to be previously approved by the Minister. In addition to the measurements carried out by the operators, the competent authority shall ensure compliance with the permit conditions and impose penalties where there is a breach of these terms.