No excessive levels of air pollution were reported in the vicinity of Delimara power station. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is refusing to retract his pre-election claim that the Delimara power station is a “cancer factory”, despite a report saying no excessive levels of air pollution were reported in the vicinity of the heavy fuel oil plant.

Dr Muscat was commenting in the wake of an air quality study published on Tuesday which showed that over a six-month period the levels of minute airborne pollutants recorded in the nearby villages of Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa were within EU levels.

The report, compiled by a British university, attributed the occasional breaches in EU particulate level limits to regional sources, including fine dust carried over from the Sahara desert.

During a visit to the offices of Attard and Co in Marsa yesterday, the Prime Minister was asked by Times of Malta whether he stood by his claim made at the height of the election campaign this time last year.

Dr Muscat replied by blaming the upward revision of the emission thresholds by the previous government.

Dr Muscat’s decision to stick to his guns and not retract the claim is arrogant and irresponsible

He said the Nationalist administration had amended the law to increase the maximum permissible emission levels, so as to award the contract of the Delimara power station extension to the Danish company BWSC.

“Had the Nationalist government not made this upward revision, the emission levels would have been in breach of the previous limit,” the Prime Minister argued.

Probed about the fact that Malta’s limit values were in line with those of the EU, Dr Muscat said relaxing the previous thresholds to bring them in line with those of Brussels was a mistake, as “for once Malta’s regulations were stricter”.

Asked specifically whether he felt he should retract his claim, Dr Muscat said this question should be put to the people of Marsaxlokk.

“We have seen very clear cases [of cancer] and the conversion to gas will greatly improve air quality in the area,” he concluded.

Environmentalist Edward Mallia was far from impressed by the Prime Minister’s reaction and branded his “cancer factory” remarks as “a piece of arrant nonsense”.

Commenting on timesofmalta.com yesterday Dr Mallia said even though he had not yet examined the report in detail, Dr Muscat’s decision to stick to his guns and not retract the claim was “arrogant and irresponsible”.

He also felt Dr Muscat had “shot himself in both feet” when saying one should listen to the Marsaxlokk residents and asked whether Dr Muscat was going to listen to residents’ plea against having the floating gas storage facility inside the harbour.

Dr Mallia asked whether the opinions of Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa residents, as well as their future “suffering”, was worth anything this time round.