The real pollution culprits

The head of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's Environment Directorate, Martin Seychell, is reported to have said in his letter Roads Are Malta's Pollution Hotspots (March 2), that air quality monitoring data "do not paint an ugly picture" and that "the general state of air quality (did) not dishearten (him)".

In traditional government defensive mode, Mr Seychell tries to downplay excess particulate pollution by invoking that old chestnut of "saltspray particles" and "fine Sahara dust" to explain away our raised PM10 particles. He even resorts to a grotesque extrapolation to implicate "naturally occurring phenomena" to explain some episodes of excess particulate pollution levels and bring down these down to "31 times a year".

Mr Seychell's assertion that "Msida is a traffic node which reflects the general situation in other localities in the inner harbour area," is also suspect, since it is not supported by air monitoring data from what must be other more serious "hot spots" elsewhere such as the harbour area itself, St Julians, Ħamrun and other sites. These are built-up, heavily congested places where pollution lingers owing to the street "canyon effect". These areas are almost certainly significantly more polluted than suggested by the monitoring station at Msida, which is in the middle of a large open space.

Finally, Mr Seychell seems to place the blame squarely on private transport ("lifestyle choices of (people) driving more kilometres per year in their car"). In so doing he conveniently ignores Malta's two monstrous, polluting sacred cows, namely, the dust-generating and diesel-hungry construction industry and our notorious buses, thus omitting the truly polluting vehicles which create intense street level pollution when they circulate in densely built up areas.

Maybe Mr Seychell could be forgiven for putting the blame on cars; he may have been misled by Malta's latest emissions inventory which is seriously flawed and biased against cars. This report grossly under-estimates the contribution to particulates by our diesel-powered buses and construction, transport and heavy goods vehicles. The pollution from these vehicles is so immense that it is visible to all. To make matters worse, much of this pollution also occurs in densely built-up areas, immediately exposing pedestrians and residents directly to a health hazard from inhaling the smoke. This visible pollution, though illegal, has now gone on unheeded for years.

Given the lengths to which our government goes to downplay its inaction over its appalling inactivity on the pollution front (not to mention clean energy generation) it may be in place here to pre-empt some excuses. It might be argued that our polluting buses will soon be taken off our roads. This is no excuse for allowing the scandalous situation to continue even one day longer and prolonging the harm from this pollution. In any event, it is very possible that, like many other grandiose projects, the reform will take much longer to introduce - so that exposure to the pollution will continue. Furthermore, such an argument does not include the other major source of pollution from the construction industry, heavy goods and delivery vehicles, many of which continue to emit smoke with impunity in our streets.

The argument that buses are relatively few in number in comparison to private cars is also invalid because their potential for pollution at street level is much greater. Besides (illegally) emitting smoke particles and polluting much more than cars, buses travel many more kilomtetres because they are used almost continuously and their pollution is all the more serious because much of it occurs in built-up streets and gets blown directly at pedestrians and inhaled into lungs. The importance of dealing with such pollution is supported by clear scientific evidence that people exposed to traffic pollution from living on, or close to, congested roads have a higher rate of illness and early death.

Private transport might be part of the problem, but it is simply not on to place the blame entirely on the car and omit the more gross and abundant illegal pollution, not only from our heavily polluting buses but also from our construction industry and heavy goods vehicles. To see mothers pushing infants in prams on our pavements within feet of buses which spew out smoke is a damning indictment of the indifference of our authorities to the health of citizens and the very young.

It also needs emphasising, yet again, that our Health Department should be doing something about this health hazard. It would be very welcome if our new health Minister, Joseph Cassar, might make it his crusade to combat Malta's pollution.