Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

483 Chapter 17: Conclusions The impact of environmental hazards and exposures are not equal across society – the young, old, those already in poor health, and groups of disadvantaged socio-economic status tend to be more disproportionally impacted (EEA, 2019). At a European level, environmental inequalities are not well addressed by current policy and are likely to endure, and potentially expand, into the future (EEA, 2019). Research demonstrating that long-term, low-level exposure to fine particulate matter is associated with poorer mental health in older people in Ireland further confirms this (Lyons et al. , 2024). The Well-being Framework for Ireland has potential to bring key information into the policy spaces but, as recommended by NESC (2023), there is a need to collect more data to detect inequalities, including environmental ones. In this context, identifying and increasing the visibility of environmental exposure and inequalities at a local scale will be key to informing policies to address health and environment. One key insight is that, in the main, the impacts of the environment on our health, both positive and negative, are modifiable (i.e. they can be changed) and addressing harmful exposure (to, for example, radon, air pollution, noise and water pollution) will have a beneficial impact on our health. Addressing these risks by reducing pollution, adapting to and mitigating climate change impacts, and restoring ecosystems means that people can be healthier and live longer.