Revealing information from the World Health Organisation.
The new Minister for Health Simon Harris has a large to-do list on his agenda, but this recent survey from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is bound to be brought to his attention because Irish cities and towns have breached the safety levels for air pollution.
The health risks for people that are subjected to poor air quality include the following; risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic and acute respiratory diseases and asthma.
The criterion that’s used to measure air purity is a unit known as particulate matter (PMs), these are microscopic solid or liquid matter that’s suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Of those Irish locations that were found to be in breach of the required standard, Longford was the worst, registering PM10, at 22 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3).
Bray, Galway and Dublin also breached the acceptable levels on another measure known as PM2.5, with Longford the worst offender at 15µg/m3.
Ambient air pollution, made of high concentrations of small and fine particulate matter, causes more than 3 million premature deaths worldwide ever year.
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