Outspoken Maltese doctor and former politician Anthony Buttigieg has noticed a worrying trend among expatriates who move to Malta.
Writing in the popular Facebook group ‘The Salott’ Grech said, “In the last few years, I have come across and examined dozens, if not hundreds of expatriates who have moved to Malta. Prior to that, they and their families did not suffer from allergies or asthma. When they did come here, they or their children suddenly experienced severe asthma or sinusitis”
An EU report in 2019 estimated that the noxious gases and sooty particles emitted by car, truck and motorcycle exhausts cut the lives of around 576 people short every year.
“We, living in this permanent construction site, tempered by a culture of acceptance, have taken the health issues we have had to endure as the price of progress …” Buttigieg said begrudgingly.
Evidence of the harm to health of pollution, such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, is mounting. Msida has some of the worst air quality on the island, where the dangerous particles (PM10) in the air far exceed permissible limits.
What do you think about Buttigieg’s observation? Should Malta do more to stop air pollution?
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