Sheer luck Cork city wasn't polluted by Ringaskiddy fire, says chemistry expert

An ominous smog-like haze hanging over Cork city centre and suburbs at the weekend. Fuel burning at home is the predominant cause, according to experts.

Smoke from the Ringaskiddy fire at the weekend dispersed away from Cork city centre out of sheer luck, according to a chemistry expert.

Had this not happened, it would have exacerbated an already serious situation with poor air quality across the area in recent weeks — mostly caused by home fire lighting.

That is according to University College Cork professor of chemistry John Wenger, who said people lighting the fire at home, coupled with slack winds and cold temperatures, caused the hazy smog-like plume that could be seen in the heart of the city from higher grounds.

People in higher areas of the city outskirts likes Montenotte or Mayfield could see the filthy haze hang over some of the most densely populated places in the city throughout daylight hours.

Ironically, the smog-like cloud hung most prominently in areas such as the Marina, where thousands of people enjoy the amenity for exercise purposes and their pursuit of fresh air.

Mr Wenger, considered one of the foremost authorities anywhere on atmospheric chemistry, air quality, and climate change, said Cork's ominous-looking haze was the result of human behaviour intersecting with science.

"This is a bit like a lid on the lower atmosphere, which means any emissions don’t go up vertically, they don’t get transported, and since there is no wind, they don’t get transferred across either. They just hang there, accumulated in the lower atmosphere, the bottom layer.

"You can actually see that line where the temperature inversion, and the pollutant levels only go to a certain level and continue to build up. With Cork in a bit of a valley, you can see them hanging in what looks like a basin. 

We get it every winter, and that is what we have got every night over the last week. You get it in Ennis, in Enniscorthy, Macroom, all sorts of places. Lighting fires with coal, wood, and peat is far and away the biggest culprit.

Mr Wenger, who co-leads UCC's Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry along with Professor John Sodeau, Dr Dean Venables, and Dr Andy Ruth, told the Irish Examiner that action by the Government to ban smoky fuel outright, married to a greater sense of individual adherence within the public to abandon lighting fires at home, was the solution.

Poor air quality causes 1,200 needlessly premature deaths in Ireland, data shows.

"In places like large urban centres, where there is alternative sources of heating for homes like gas, we really shouldn’t be using solid forms of fuel. 

"People have other ways of heating, but they really like the fire. That is the problem," Mr Wenger said. 

It’s the concept of coziness that we like, but the problem that causes, is pollution.

It was a red herring blaming poor air quality on facilities like Moneypoint power station in Kilrush, Co Clare.

Ireland's largest electricity generation station is not the source of poor air quality across Munster when powered up, contrary to what some people fear, he said.

"There is no correlation between Moneypoint and poor air quality. There is monitoring in Tralee, Ennis, and Limerick, and it just happens to be that those places were among the worst in the last week for weather conditions and the burning of fuel. It was just a coincidence. 

"Moneypoint is very clean, it is a very efficient heat-burning facility. What isn’t very clean is the fact that people are burning coal and wood and peat in their fires."