The Air That We Breathe

On a clear day… Aaron O’Reilly

amously, when Bob Hope first visited Ireland, he paused on the steps of his plane and squinted his eyes as he surveyed Dublin airport.

Finally, with the press firmly within earshot, the Hollywood legend deadpanned, “I don’t trust air that I can’t see…”.

It’s a mistrust that the Environmental Protection Agency are keen to maintain, as they regularly check the air quality around the country.

In their latest figures, only 16 of the 58 monitoring stations across Ireland did not exceed the 50µg/m³ limit on any day during 2022. And Greystones is among that happy and healthy mouth breathers.

Also doing your lungs a favour are Drogheda, Cobh, Carrick-On-Shannon, Portlaoise, Roscommon, Sligo, Killarney, Claremorris, Carlow and our neighbours, Bray, as well as spots in Cork and Galway.

EPA monitor at Greystones Fire Station

The main cause of air pollution in the country is nitrogen dioxide from transport emissions and particulate matter from the burning of solid fuels. Having met all of our EU legal requirements in 2021, Ireland’s air quality have now failed the World Health Organisation’s new, stricter health-based guidelines.

Those WHO guidelines – which are not legally binding – have set a target of a daily maximum of 45µg/m³.

Estimations put air pollution responsible for 1,300 deaths a year in Ireland, with a spokesperson for the EPA stating, “The choices we make in how we heat our homes and how we travel directly impact the quality of the air we breathe.”

You can check Greystones’ breathing here, whilst the main Air Quality website covers the whole country here.

Cover pic: Rafal Razalski