The Asthma Society of Ireland highlighted the significant failings in the monitoring of air quality in Ireland at the launch of their 2015 Clean Air Campaign on 23rd November in the College of Medicine and Health Science, UCC.
The campaign highlights the fact that Ireland is falling behind European Standards and despite 4.7 million people living here it only has 31 monitoring sites, compared to Northern Ireland with a population of 1.7 million people and 20 sites.
In addition, there are only three Irish monitoring stations capable of recording Real-Time data of the standard parameters for particulate matter, PM 2.5 and PM 10. This means that the public are not receiving accurate information as to the exact quality of our air and the level of particulate matter present at specific periods of time and on a national scale.
The Clean Air Campaign 2015 is calling on Irish people to take action and sign a petition asking all Irish political parties to prioritise air quality policy by logging onto www.asthma.ie
The petition calls for three commitments:
1. Implement the nationwide smoky coal ban as soon as possible.
2. Expand the air monitoring network to every county in the country.
3. Draft new clean air legislation to World Health Organisations Air Quality standards to make Ireland a world leader in tackling air pollution.
Stressing the importance of the Clean Air Campaign, Asthma Society CEO concluded:
“Air pollution has serious and negative health effects on too many people in Ireland for it to be neglected any longer. I would encourage everyone in Ireland to support the campaign, sign the petition and send a clear message to our government that they must act”.