It was ironic and shameful that a number of workers involved in safeguarding the environment were currently among the people who were mostly suffering from air pollution, the Labour Party’s spokesman for sustainable development and climate change, Leo Brincat said.

Mr Brincat said that workers in the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s environmental protection division were recently transferred to Hexagon House at Marsa where an odour problem has affected the several workers who have worked at this place over the years.

A number of formal complaints about the smells and the headaches and breathing problems these were causing were lodged and although some measures were taken to mitigate the problem, these had not been effective enough.

Mr Brincat said that a Health and Safety Risk Assessment Report on this place was passed on to the health and safety representatives of these workers.

It was shameful that, rather than leading by example, the environmental authorities chose to place this division in a place contaminated by persistent smells.

The people, Mr Brincat said, had a right to know what effective remedies the authorities were taking so that this environmental wound would be remedied once and for all with steps being taken against those responsible for this pollution.