Unavoidable reality of street pollution (1)

Some points made by Martin Seychell during the interview reported on March 2 and in his letter (March 17) touch on important health issues.

Mr Seychell omitted to mention the important role of buses and heavy goods vehicles in the causation of particulate pollution in Malta. Instead he seems to erroneously put the blame on private transport.

Another issue is the use of extrapolations based on comparison of observations in Msida and Għarb to explain away episodes of excess particulate levels. This is all very well but is it valid, given the peculiar conditions in Malta? EU directives state that sampling points should include data from agglomerations where the highest concentrations of pollutants are expected to occur, and to which the population is likely to be exposed for significant periods.

There are such sites - in, say, Ħamrun, Birkirkara Fgura or St Julians - which probably conform more to these two criteria (especially the second) - rather than Msida, even though the latter is a traffic hub.

Air quality monitoring alone does not address the reality faced by many people who live in traffic-congested streets in densely built-up areas and this is the important issue to be addressed. The pivotal point is that, even though particulates tend to disperse widely, scientific surveys have shown that residence in roads with heavy traffic carries greatly increased the health risks of premature death from lung or heart disease or cancer. Children may show impaired lung function and are more prone to asthma attacks.

The forgoing is supported by ample scientific evidence cited in a report (paras 866-876, 884-901) which can be downloaded from http://www.tppi.org.mt/cms/reports/Low-Carbon-Society/Report.pdf . Triq il-Kulleg l-Antik, Sliema, and its surrounds is a typical example. Bad road planning and excess property development has resulted in this old residential street becoming a major exit street from Sliema which carries a huge volume of traffic, creating thick pollution to which pedestrians and residents are exposed.

This is especially so in the lower end of the street which is uphill, narrow and bounded by high buildings. To make matters worse, the adjoining St Julians/Sliema stretch of sea-front is heavily polluted by route buses and heavy transport vehicles which belch black sooty smoke just feet away from pedestrians. This adds immense quantities of particulates to the background pollution from car traffic. This pollution can often be both seen and smelled, especially on still summer days. The levels of suspended fine particulates (not to mention other dangerous pollutants as benzene) in this entire area must be stupendously raised for a lot of the time. Such a scenario is not unique - it is as bad, or worse, in many other traffic-congested urbanised parts of Malta.

Irrespective of air quality data from Msida, the fact to be addressed is this: buses and other vehicles which emit smoke are breaking the law and contributing intensely to local street pollution - private cars, though part of the problem, play a much smaller role than had been suggested by a flawed Mepa report.

Furthermore, the quantity of particulates emitted into streets by improperly operated law-breaking buses and many other diesel vehicles is probably far higher than the theoretical predicted amount based on fuel consumption alone, making matters worse.

If Mepa is truly committed to "ensure that the quality of the air we breathe in Malta is clean both for our health and for our environment", then urgent action needs to be taken against the truly heavy polluters, namely, our notorious buses and many of our heavy transport vehicles. These emit smoke, much of which is blown at pedestrians' faces (not to mention mothers with infants in prams), in many of our crowded streets.

Surely, the first step must be to put a stop to this massive, visible and illegal pollution by our route buses and other offending vehicles in our streets? The crucial point is that this serious street-level pollution is not the sort that will necessarily be picked up by a distant monitor.