This newspaper’s website uploaded a stunning video clip of a vehicle spewing smoke in the main street in Fgura (‘Smoke machine belches through Fgura’, timesofmalta.com, September 3).
Of course, this kind of environmental irresponsibility is so rampant in Malta that vehicles emitting smoke are accepted as a normal everyday part of our dysfunctional traffic situation – and also disregarded by wardens and police.
The density of our traffic is responsible for severe ambient pollution in Malta and there are many traffic-congested ‘hot spots’ in Malta where the level of toxic emissions is unacceptably high; this will be responsible for severe health repercussions. The situation is phenomenally exacerbated by the large number of badly maintained diesel vehicles on our roads.
It must be repeated that by far the most damaging of traffic pollutants are the toxic particles (‘fine particulates’) emitted by diesel engines. Diesel pollution is caused by all diesel vehicles and the pollution is especially copious if inferior fuel (such as contraband diesel) is used or if engines are badly adjusted.
In plain language, consequences of this pollution are as follows: People exposed to traffic pollution, especially those who reside in or near congested roads, have a significantly higher likelihood of dying young from heart disease, lung disease or lung cancer.
Children are especially susceptible to harm from traffic pollution. Children exposed to the level of traffic pollution found in traffic-congested areas are at high risk of sustaining permanently decreased lung function and asthma.
Besides that, these children will also carry the seeds of pollution into adulthood.
They will be more likely to die young from heart disease, lung disease or lung cancer in addition to a higher incidence of other diseases, especially strokes.
Irrefutable proof of harm from diesel pollution was already available in 1995 and the evidence of serious harm from diesel pollution has mounted inexorably since then.
Fgura is probably the most polluted part of Malta so that children growing up there are particularly threatened.
The writing on the wall was already there in 2001; asthma or asthma-like symptoms in children resident in Fgura were found to be among the highest ever recorded rates internationally.
That our Health Department has, over the years, been indifferent to the serious harm being inflicted on our coming generations as a result of Malta’s high level of pollution is scandalous.