Cork named as the cleanest city in Ireland for air quality

An aerial view of Cork city. Picture: Denis Scannell

A leading environment group has named Cork as the top city in Ireland when it comes to air quality - and the 15th best in Europe.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) ranked 372 cities across the continent using assessments and reports.

Uppsala in Sweden had the cleanest air overall.

However, Cork city recorded a level of 5.2 μg/m³, slightly above the World Health Organization's (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m³.

The EEA has outlined the detrimental health effects in the air we breathe - noting that in Ireland, air pollutants mainly come from solid fuel burning and to a lesser extent, traffic on our roads.

In a statement, Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Dan Boyle said: "It is encouraging that the efforts of Cork City Council to create better public awareness of the need to protect air quality, have begun to bear fruit. 

"Cork compares well with similar sized European cities. There is, however, little room for complacency as there are times of the year when pollution risks are too high and must be reduced. 

"Our goal is to bring air quality in the city to comply with the WHO standards”.

A number of measures in recent years have improved the city's air quality.

A spokesperson for Cork City council said: "Measures such as the delivery of Cork City’s Air Quality Strategy and the associated actions such as the creation of a Clean Air Zone, work on numerous citizen science and air quality outreach projects as well as Cork playing host to Clean Air Day."

They added that while the results from the European Air Quality Report are encouraging "it also serves as a reminder that there is still a body of work to be done in meeting the more stringent WHO limits for air quality". 

"Cork City Council is committed to improving and expanding public and active travel, retrofitting its buildings and its housing stock and in promoting all available grant funding schemes for home energy upgrades."