Research on the respiratory health of children, which is thought to be poor, will finally be available once an EU-funded study on 600 students from three regions gets under way.
The Respira project, launched yesterday at the Health Ministry in collaboration with health professionals and health centres in Sicily, should serve to help understand air quality indoors and its effects on respiratory health to be able to implement the necessary measures.
The children, aged between 11 and 14, from six secondary schools, will be answering questionnaires. But the study goes deeper and includes the use of €345,000 worth of sophisticated equipment, bought through EU funds and with the contribu-tion of the Health Ministry, to measure air quality in schools and homes.
About 80 per cent of life is spent indoors and 30 per cent in schools, consultant respiratory physician, Stephen Montefort pointed out.
The equipment would provide the lacking scientific proof, measuring pollutants in the air to be analysed by Sicilian technical expertise and sent to specialised centres for chemical analysis.
Asthma is the most common chronic childhood condition in the world, reaching epidemic levels, and the Maltese are known to have the highest rate in the Mediterranean, as well as associated symptoms. The island has a high prevalence of respiratory illness.
“Everyone complains that parts of the country are more polluted but what hard evidence do we have of this? There are no figures,” Prof. Montefort said.
But that was mostly anecdotal evidence, based on suspicion, and it needed to be turned into facts so that schools could be built bearing the results in mind.
These could lead to changes in ventilation systems, he said, pointing out that even the type of paint, furniture and plants had an effect on respiratory health.
The broad-spectrum investigation would not only look into particulate matter but also gases, light, noise and electromag-netic radiation.
Of the 100 boys and 100 girls from each of the three regions, 36 from each will be invited to undergo further free tests at Mater Dei Hospital and 12 families from each would then be selected for the monitoring of the air quality of their homes, said Martin Balzan, a doctor specialised in respiratory medicine.
The first phase of Respira targets Ħamrun secondary schools and will be carried out in the next three months. The next region would be tackled in October and the third at the beginning of next year, he said.
The research required trained health professionals but also the collaboration of parents and it was hoped that they would “help us to finally help them”.
The end result would be the publication of a document and Malta’s situation would then be compared to that of other countries.
By the beginning of next year, the results of another EU-funded study, Sinphonie, involving children from five primary schools, aged between nine and 11, in 27 countries, will also be available, providing a clear picture of the situation.