Diesel should not be cheaper than petrol as this only encourages people to opt for cars that run on a dirtier fuel, according to a consultant respiratory physician.
“Shifting to lower sulphur fuel and phasing out the Marsa power station were good moves. However, the price of diesel is still lower than petrol… There shouldn’t be any incentive to choose diesel over petrol,” Martin Balzan said. Petrol has been 9c per litre more expensive than diesel since April.
Dr Balzan’s comments come as the world reels from the scandal that wiped more than a third off Volkswagen’s share price.
The car company admitted that 11 million of its diesel vehicles were fitted with software that switched engines to a cleaner mode when they underwent official testing.
Dr Balzan said despite only one per cent of cars running on diesel in the US, where petrol is relatively cheap, authorities there were still stringent on diesel emissions.
He was speaking to the newspaper following the release last week of data from a study called Respira, which he had collected in 2012, at the European Respiratory Society Annual Congress in Amsterdam.
We’re going to end up with a situation where we have phased out the power station, but still get four others – polluting cruise liners – in our harbour
The study shows that elemental carbon, commonly referred to as soot, is much higher in Malta than in the US.
Respira saw a team from the Department of Respiratory Medicine studying the chemical composition of fine particles suspended in the air (pm2.5), and comparing the information with industrial Gela and rural southern Sicily. Malta has twice the level of particles found in Gela, and nearly three times more than rural Sicily.
“The emission of particulate matter (pm2.5) in Malta is high and linked to asthma symptoms, common in some 15 cent of the population.
Meanwhile, the chemical composition of such particles is very high in elemental carbon indicating diesel combustion as the main source.”
Moreover, the carbon particles in Malta are peppered with numerous harmful metals such as vanadium and nickel, thought to be originating from the Marsa power station, which has since been phased out.
Emissions are higher in Ħamrun and Marsa, because of the proximity to the power station, but Dr Balzan noted that these localities were also close to the cruise liner terminal.
He insisted that ships should be energised through the local power supply grid, rather than allowed to run on diesel and heavy fuel oil. “Otherwise, we’re going to end up with a situation where we have phased out the power station, but still get four others – polluting cruise liners – in our harbour,” Dr Balzan said.
Meanwhile, Malta fared better when it came to sulphur levels when compared to Gela, which has a higher risk of rhinitis and eye symptoms probably related to the sulphur content of the particles.
According to previously released data, which was confirmed last week by research led by Stephen Montefort and Eleonor Gerada, eye and nose symptoms related to rhinitis are decreasing.