EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 14: Environment, Health and Wellbeing Measures to tackle transport-related air pollution must also be urgently adopted and implemented, e.g. by using cleaner alternatives to the private car such as cycling, walking, taking public transport, carpooling, moving to cleaner modes of public transport and expanding the electric car recharging network to encourage and support more environmentally friendly means of transport (EPA, 2020e). The importance of good spatial and urban planning is also essential in this regard to provide key infrastructure to allow and encourage more active travel by citizens. It is recognised that exposure to air pollution has an unequal impact on groups of society: the elderly, children, those in poor health and groups with lower socio-economic status are the most adversely affected (EEA, 2018). An analysis of air pollution and admissions to St. James’s Hospital, Dublin, for respiratory and cardiovascular disorders identified a higher risk of mortality among those from lower socio-economic groups (Cournane et al. , 2017). This points to a need for more urgent focus on and action targeting the most at-risk groups of society to ensure that inequalities in exposure are adequately addressed by current and future policy, practice and interventions. The EPA’s Air Quality Index for Health (AQIH) provides a real-time (updates every 2-5 minutes) assessment of air quality across Ireland and categorises it on a scale of 1-10. The higher the reading, the poorer the air quality; a reading of 1-3 denotes good air quality in the area and a reading of 10 denotes very poor air quality in the area (Figure 14.6). The real-time analysis and heath advice messages provided by the AQIH for each region are a useful tool in helping to better protect people’s health, particularly the health of those who may be quite sensitive to air pollution (e.g. adults and children with heart or lung conditions including asthma, older people). An analysis undertaken by the EPA and the HSE’s Public Health Team examined the relationship between short- term AQIH and acute hospital admissions in the Dublin region (unpublished data). The findings indicated that, when the AQIH was fair or poor in the region, there was an increase in admissions of individuals with asthma (estimated by the HSE to be approximately 470,000 people) and atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat, affecting > 3 per cent of the population over 50) (Smyth et al. , 2015), with a 70 per cent increase in same-day asthma admissions on days when poor air quality was reported. This piece of research demonstrates the benefit of the AQIH as a suitable short-term measure to raise people’s awareness of air quality in their region and of the AQIH’s potential to be used as a tool, particularly by those more vulnerable populations, to help them adequately prepare for, and reduce their exposure to, air pollution. 365