AIR pollution levels in Letterkenny have spiked in recent days and the town’s monitoring station recorded the worst quality in Ireland on Friday, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The monitoring station on the High Road showed spikes of particulate matter (PM2.5) 27 times above the level recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a 24 hour period on Thursday.
It comes as the EPA has launched a new National Air Quality Forecast which provides maps showing the predicted daily air quality for up to three days. It is designed to be an important resource for everyone, but especially people who may be sensitive to poor air quality such as people with asthma and heart conditions.
Speaking to the Donegal News on Friday Patrick Kenny, Lead of the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Unit said the dominant source of high pollutant levels is the burning of solid fuels.
“The PM levels for Letterkenny are showing very high concentrations and that is why the station has moved to poor air quality,” he said
“Clearly there is an issue and there is high concentrations in Letterkenny but the other two monitoring stations in Donegal, Buncrana and Malin Head are showing good air quality.”
Mr Kenny said it is important for the public to have access to information on air quality as particulate matter (PM2.5) is very damaging for our lung and heart systems.
“For anyone that has asthma or a heart condition it can be particularly damaging,” said Mr Kenny.
“It is estimated that there are approximately 1,300 premature deaths annually in Ireland due to poor air quality from fine particulate matter.”
On tackling the issue locally Mr Kenny said there are ongoing discussions between the EPA, the department of Environment and Donegal County Council on how to gain more information on air quality in particular in Letterkenny.
He said the Council has been very proactive in terms of informing the public of the harmful impacts of burning smoky coal.
“Unfortunately geographically Letterkenny is surrounded by high mountains and hills that trap air pollutants,” he said.
The EPA is set to launch a new initiative in March called Now Cast which will give the public access to hourly modelling of air quality maps which will provide live updates at Donegal’s three monitoring stations.
In June the agency will also introduce a resource that will give the public an average annual look back on air quality for different areas.
This will give local authorities an opportunity to see the current quality of air in a particularly area, forecasted air quality as well as the annual average in order to take proactive actions to improve quality.
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