Enniscorthy’s air pollution needs to be addressed
FIANNA Fail TD, James Browne, has said the Government is not doing enough to address air pollution issues in towns in county Wexford.
With regard to Enniscorthy he said the Government is failing to take heed of numerous warnings from experts and scientists that air pollution in the town is getting ‘akin to that of New Delhi’, in India.
Commenting on the matter to this newspaper Deputy Browne renewed his call for a nationwide ban on smoky coal.
He was expressing his concern following a leaked report of research carried out by the HSE and EPA which established a link between poor air quality and increasing hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular illness.
Deputy Browne said the situation in New Delhi, where the authorities have declared a public health emergency including shutting down schools and many workplaces as a result of their toxic air pollution, should serve as a wake-up call to the Irish Government to implement a nationwide smoky coal ban here.
‘While the situation in New Delhi is at the extreme end of the scale, for a number of years experts in Ireland have warned that air pollution in Enniscorthy, and indeed Gorey and New Ross, is regularly exceeding the maximum acceptable levels of toxic pollution,’ he said.
‘In Enniscorthy alone air pollution levels in the town have been 10 times over the EU limit,’ he added.
He said the Government halted a decision on a nationwide smoky coal ban as a result of lobbyists from within the coal industry.
‘ This lack of backbone will make people sick [as] air pollution attacks every cell in the body,’ he said.
‘It carries carcinogens and causes respiratory problems in all age groups,’ he added.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a total of 1,500 premature deaths in Ireland are directly attributable each year to poor air quality caused by solid fuel burning.
‘I would urge the Government to stop bowing to the pressure of the coal lobbyists,’ said Deputy Browne.
‘ They need to act now, before it gets any worse.’