Air pollution report - 3,000 deaths demand that we act

Ireland’s reputation as a green and pleasant land will take another unwelcome but sadly justified blow with the publication of An Taisce’s shocking report that persistent exposure to severe air pollution is indirectly killing one person more or less every three hours — around eight people a day, 56 a week, 224 a month and nearly 3,000 a year.

These challenging figures also remind us that our complacency on environmental protection has a serious cost in human and economic terms.

The air pollution death toll puts the number of road deaths — a record low of 161 last year — very much in the ha’penny place. That almost 20 people die because of air pollution for every individual killed on our roads suggests that we might need to reappraise how we use finite resources to reduce unnecessary, premature deaths in this country.

The figure, though, is still less than half that of those who die directly from smoking. Compared to China, where air pollution was complicit in 1.2m deaths in 2010 alone — it seems like an almost irrelevant figure but the scale is not the issue. The impact this situation has on families and individuals must be the immediate concern — especially as it is one that can be resolved.

Nevertheless, it is hard to accept that in a country that presents itself as a green, relatively unpolluted place — a plausible source of good and uncontaminated food — that poisoned, corrupted air should kill so many people each year.

An Taisce reported that air pollution is costing our economy €6.3bn a year, so in purely economic terms it makes sense to tackle the situation. When the consequences of air pollution are considered on an EU-wide basis — 420,000 premature deaths a year and a €790bn health bill every year — it seems reckless not to do so.

Referring to World Health Organisation figures, An Taisce points the finger at diesel cars, trucks or buses as the primary sources of this lethal pollution. Technical advances may reduce that threat and tax regimes designed to encourage motorists to buy low-emission vehicles may offer a long-term solution, but a more immediate response is needed.

Unfortunately, we seem to be doing the very opposite. Recent Environmental Protection Agency projections indicated that we are unlikely to meet our annual obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2017 onwards despite the fall-off in emissions associated with the recession. We are legally bound, under EU climate targets, to cut our carbon footprint by 20% by 2020 but the EPA have warned that we are unlikely to meet carbon reduction requirements from 2017 onwards. They suggest we will breach our target by between 4.1m and 7.8m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020.

Projections about water security and quality are equally circumspect and point out, one more time, that our recklessly indifferent, laissez-faire attitude to environmental protection is dangerously unsustainable.

Surely we will act before it is too late?