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AN ESTIMATED 1,300 people are prematurely dying each year in Ireland due to poor air quality, according to a new report.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Quality report for 2019 has found that air quality in this country is “generally good”, but that there have been a number of occasions and places where levels have exceeded guidelines.
The main source of the pollutants in the air were vehicle emissions in urban areas and particles from burning solid fuels.
Poor air quality has short-term health implications such as headaches, breathing difficulties and eye irritation and long-term effects including asthma, reduced liver function or cardiovascular disease.
Particulate Matter (PM) was the pollutant most responsible for premature deaths in Ireland, with the report finding that 1,300 deaths were linked to PM.
PM is made up of very small particles in the air which can be solid or liquid. In Ireland, the primary source of PM is from solid fuel burning for home-heating.
The EPA report has found that 33 monitoring stations across Ireland recorded air pollutants at levels above World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Levels are particularly high during the winter months, when elevated use of solid fuels such as coal, turf and wet wood impacts negatively on air quality, especially in towns and villages.
The other main pollutants in the air are nitrogen oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), both from the burning of petrol and diesel.
The report found the monitoring station at St Johns Road West near Heuston Station exceeded the EU Air Quality Limit for NO2. The average concentration for 2019 was 43 µg/m3, marginally above the limit of 40 µg/m3.
The EPA says this a result of heavy traffic at the site and that can be observed due to morning and evening peaks of NO2 levels in the air.
The site exceeding EU limits has been reported to the European Commission and an Air Quality Action Plan for Dublin is to be prepared.
Impact of Covid-19
Although the EPA report is for 2019, it also contains details of what is described as a “marked” reduction in NO2 levels due to the Covid-19 enforced restrictions.
The EPA has charted two different locations in Dublin to show the effect of the lockdown, the previously mentioned St Johns Road West and Pearse Street.
In both instances, the impact of Covid-19 restrictions is obvious and indeed the easing of restrictions can also be seen to lead to NO2 levels rising again.
Speaking upon the publication of the report, Dr Ciara McMahon of the EPA’s Environmental Monitoring office said that action must be taken to ensure that air quality is improved.
“Ireland is renowned for its countryside and clean fresh air, but we can no longer take this for granted,” McMahon said.
Poor air quality impacts people’s health and quality of life, so it is now time to tackle the two key issues that impact negatively on air quality in Ireland – transport emissions in large urban areas and emissions from burning of solid fuels in our cities, towns and villages. The choices we make affect the levels of pollution in the air we breathe, which in turn affects the health of our lungs, heart and other organs.
“We need to decarbonise our public transport system and in general reduce our reliance on diesel and petrol-powered vehicles. Moving to cleaner ways of heating our homes will also significantly improve air quality across Ireland.”
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“I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English. There is barely a morsel of offal not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy,”. A true master of the English language. Adrian Gill did not hold back in deploying his unique command of words to look death in the eye and find a moment of amusement.
RIP. Filthy awful obscene disease cancer. Seems to me to be coming out of the walls these days is there more and more of it occurring or is it just that more and more of it’s being diagnosed?
sometimes it seems that cancer is winning too many times …
@Suzie Sunshine: seems to me that the basic strategy is to throw bags of poison into you until they either kill all the bad cells or all the good cells. Cancer is strongly associated with inflammation. I wonder would attempting to reduce all sources of inflammation both in diet and the air we breathe and the things we do would be a good thing. And legalise the use of THC derived medicaments. Tetrahydrocannabinol seems to work against cancer by recognising and targeting the cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct, while leaving the good cells unharmed. As some advanced chemos also do. But of course there isn’t huge profits, royalties, shareholder value, in a simple plant that grows in nature.
If I had the Big C I wouldn’t give a toss I’d grow away to my heart’s content what medicine I needed and if the cops came through the door I’d say ”Nothing ye can do to me is as bad as this disease so I’ll pick my battles and fight them as I see fit.”
@John O’Driscoll: If you live long enough… you’ll probably get a cancer. It”s a cell mutation.
We just live longer. Other stuff doesn’t get us as much. We survive or prevent heart disease more. Less industrial accidents.
Something has to get you in the end.
Great statement.
@John O’Driscoll: You are probably right, over the past decade since CT scans are now available in our hospitals. Doctors can now recognise parts of the body affected by cancer. The doctors probably told him that his days were numbered if the disease had spread into other parts of the body other than his neck which sounds like a swollen lymphoma indicating problems with his immune system. Pity it hadn’t have been recognised sooner then it could probably have been treated.
To make things worse, too much exposure to CT scans can also bring cancers caused by radiation exposure in later life. I myself had 4 CT scans this year and the radiologist wouldn’t perform anymore telling me a person shouldn’t really have more than 4 or 5 in a lifetime……
@Darragh O Meara: Man you must be glowing, keep away from kids and pregnant women
“If you live long enough” …….?
Thanks for all replies that were informative.
An excellent writer and his exchanges with J. Clarkson were very amusing.
His book ‘AA Gill is away’ is well worth a read. He was a great travel writer too.
Sad news indeed.
I was with my wife and a group of friends on a barge on the Canal du Midi a few years ago. AA Gill was with Jeremy Clarkson and we kept encountering them at stops along the way.
AA Gill was thoroughly enjoying himself, embracing life with zest and an open generous spirit. He smoothed over a few incidents when Clarkson was getting a little stroppy. AA Gill was surprisingly open and full of joy. He treated all people he met with humour, civility and genuine interest.
What distinguished him was that he treated all that he met with a wonderful accepting respect. He treated all staff with the proper respect and put inexperience people at their ease. Because AA Gill could be acerbic and given to quite a lot of asperity in his writing, it surprised me how equanimious and affable he was.
I suspect that he lived far more years in life’s riches and variety than many who have lived much longer lives. He was no “little Englander”, he had an immense curiosity and showed no signs of judgmentalism.
Very interesting post Michael, it’s easy to assume that writers write as a reflection of themselves, but it is not often the case same as comedians aren’t always humourous in their personal and private life. I always enjoyed reading AA Gills critiques and articles and will most certainly miss them. His command of the English language was brilliant and what is more amazing is he overcame severe dyslexia to become a fantastic journalist and writer. I for one will miss his acerbic wit. RIP.
Micheal OLainn.Superb tribute man.
Great piece by AA Gill here.
‘Life at 60′
“I was born in 1954 in Edinburgh. Winston Churchill was prime minister, there was still rationing, we were the first generation that would grow up with television, pop music, central heating and a National Health Service. As a child, every old man I knew had fought in the First World War and every young man in the second.
War still hung like the smell of a damp, grim nostalgia over everything. We played Spitfires and Messerschmitts in the playground and you could, as Kingsley Amis pointed out, walk into any pub in the country and ask with perfect confidence if the major had been in. London was still moth-eaten with bomb sites and black with coal smoke. One of my earliest memories is of the last pea souper fog”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1427723.ece?shareToken=2fca8e9e52d777d7c93e9583efcc3bf2
@Alex Falcone: I remember it well, fish n chips in the sunday newspaper and Saturday kids cinema to watch Roy Rodgers and Trigger the horse.
Michael Winner & now AA Gill both gave brilliant Restaurant reviews etc ! Sadly missed !!
Ok 2016 you can stop now.
I remember best as the tv critic, was always a good laugh on a sunday morning
Oh. That’s an awful loss for his family and friends and to journalism. I loved his writing in the Sunday Times.
He’ll be missed.
RIP.
Jaysus Alan Cooke, does it matter that much to you?
Undoubtedly one of my most favorite writers and wits. I read his columns first thing every Sunday, devoured his restaurant reviews, bowed to his tv critique. There aren’t a lot of A.A. Gills in the world, his writing always enlivened me and made me smile. Bless him and his family.
For those who have yet to read his recent memoir “Pour Me : A Life, I can’t recommend it enough.
Michael O Lainn, what a nice tribute, may he rest in peace.
Holy Shit. I didn’t always agree with his verbose, seemingly pretentious articles but I always read them regardless. One of his last restaurant reviews was of the Magpie Cafe in Whitby which he gave five stars all round and personally having had a fish n chip there myself I can but only agree and commend the man for keeping it real to end. RIP
Dreadful loss to all his fans.
Can’t understand all the thumbs down to genuine options.
AA terrible loss
Hardly the point.
Sunday Times will never be quite the same.
Sadly not PJ!
He changed my life. R.I.P Mr Gill
There’s one in every box
Rick Grimes anyone?
F#ck off
Isn’t that the man who shot a baboon just to see what it felt like?
I stand corrected. He shot it to see what it might feel like to kill a human being. https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/26/aa-gill-shot-baboon
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