A NEW government report on air pollution has revealed that Stockman’s Lane is among the most polluted areas in the north.
The new Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ (DAERA) 2019 Air Pollution report has revealed that Stockman’s Lane has the highest level of potentially deadly PM10 particles. PM10 is most often created by domestic combustion and road traffic and has been linked to lung cancer and other respiratory diseases/
The study, which looked at 15 sites, found that Stockman’s Lane also had the second highest levels of NO2.
Emissions of NO2, largely linked to road traffic in the area, were around 56 micrograms per cubic metre, which was above the legal EU limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre.
West Belfast Green Party rep Stevie Maginn said the issue may be “much worse” than the statistics suggest.
“Air pollution is only tested at certain sites so it could be much worse if you look at other place,” he said.
“We did our own study in 2018 where we tested almost 100 sites and as well as Stockman’s we had two additional sites, which were even worse. One was just outside the Royal Victoria Hospital on the Falls Road and the other was outside Belfast Metropolitan College (Millfield Campus).
“Air pollution is now being one of the biggest killers worldwide, it’s linked to 500 early deaths here every year – completely avoidable early deaths.
“It’s disproportionately affecting people who are living in inner-city areas, people on lower incomes, and it’s very much a human rights issue. People who live in area like Divis or the Falls potentially don’t have a car but they experience higher rates of asthma and much worse health outcomes because of air pollution, even though they may contribute much less to it. There’s a real inequality there.”
Mr Maginn said that DAERA Minister Edwin Poots needs to act to implement further air pollution monitoring.
“They monitor 15 sites at the minute – how does that give the Minister a proper picture of air pollution?” he asked. “The first thing the Minister needs to do is implement more monitoring.
“The other thing he needs to do is implement legislation that tackles air pollution.
“He has committed to a consultation document on a clean air strategy. They’ve been promising this strategy for years and now we’re getting a consultation document about a potential strategy, which may or may not tackle the problem. We know it’s an issue, it’s an issue worldwide, and we need to monitor local sites more because we know Stockman’s is consistently breaking legal limits year on year.”
