AN EXPERT has warned that one Irish town’s quality of air is worryingly polluted.
The town in question is New Ross, Co Wexford, and residents are beginning to seriously worry about their health.
The town is found to have reached the limits of PM10 and PM2,5 particles, which is a dangerously high level of pollution.
In 2016, Wexford County Council took the measure of setting up real-time monitoring equipment in the town in 2016, which measures fine particles in the air from smoke and fuel emissions.
The main source of air pollution in Ireland is determined to be coal and peat.
Senior Executive Scientist Brendan Cooney told Independent.ie: "On one particular evening in mid-December, we were reaching limits of PM10 and PM2.5.
"To put that into perspective, the air quality was so bad that a UCC professor told me that New Ross had worse air quality than Beijing in 2008 - when there were concerns over athletes exposure to smog during the Olympics."
A spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency told the newspaper that Ireland has never exceeded EU limit values for PM10 and PM2.5.
They said: "The EPA will carefully review all monitoring received from Local Authorities, including in relation to New Ross and will move to take appropriate action regarding ambient air quality monitoring in those areas."
A number of areas have banned smoky coal in recent years, however, some smaller regional towns in Ireland still permit its use.
Minister Denis Naughten announced last month that a nationwide ban will come into effect in September of this year.
