Poor air causes 1,500 deaths
BURNING coal, turf and wood and driving private cars are leading to almost 1,500 premature deaths in Ireland each year.
A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that air quality is not improving due to the burning of solid fuels to heat homes and our continued reliance on private cars.
While air quality has not exceeded EU limits, it is in breach of stricter World Health Organisation (WHO) standards designed to protect human health.
Annual guideline limits were breached in Ennis, Co Clare, and Longford last year and levels were notably high at Rathmines in Dublin, it said.
Poor air quality is directly blamed for some 1,510 premature deaths in Ireland every year, the ‘Air Quality in Ireland 2016’ report says.
Levels of particulate matter are of “growing concern”, especially during the winter months, when coal, turf and other solid fuels are burned.
In urban areas, EU nitrogen dioxide limits are in danger of being breached due to our dependence on private cars.
The report comes as UN climate change talks get under way in Bonn today, at which countries will discuss how to implement the global climate accord that was signed in Paris in December 2015, including how to track and verify emission reductions.
The EPA report suggests that burning of fossil fuels is not only impacting on climate change emissions, but also on human health.
It has called on the Government to adopt stricter WHO guidelines as “legal and enforceable” standards.
“Poor air quality is a major public health issue, with approximately 1,500 premature deaths in Ireland in 2014 directly attributable to air pollution, mainly due to cardiopulmonary and respiratory health impacts from particulate matter,” the EPA’s director-general Laura Burke said.
She added: “It has become increasingly clear that there are no safe levels of pollutants.
“With this in mind, it is time to tackle the biggest issue impacting on air quality in Ireland – emissions from solid fuels in our small towns around the country.”
The EPA said that not only were annual WHO limits breached in two locations, daily limits were also exceeded in Claremorris, Ennis, Bray, Longford, Heatherton Park in Cork, Marino, Finglas, Rathmines and Coleraine Street in Dublin city.
Air-quality manager Patrick Kenny said poor air quality also affected people with respiratory conditions, including asthma.