It is heartening to hear that the Speaker of the House has accepted an urgent request by the Opposition to convene the black dust parliamentary committee next week in the wake of what appears to be a damning report on the infamous black dust that has been plaguing areas in the south of the island for several years.
The report placed the source of the arguably mysterious black dust squarely on the shoulders of the Enemalta Corporation, or more specifically on the Marsa Power Station, although the corporation is obviously disputing this.
The report’s author has also come out with the assertion that the particles studied were too large to be inhaled and, as such, they represented more of a nuisance than a health threat. The author is a very well-respected scientist, but, with all due respect, he is not a medical doctor.
What is needed now is an independent study on the health effects that may or may not have been inflicted by all those years of possible exposure to pollution, and all those years of government smokescreens put up to mask its culpability in the matter.
Until such a health impact study is carried out and until the results are published, the description of what is a very serious concern for those affected as a nuisance is insulting and demeaning to say the least, when so many people in areas such as Marsa suffer from regular respiratory ailments.
The issue may be more than something of a nuisance for the government, but rest assured it is far more than that for those who have been living in the shadows of the Marsa smokestacks for decades as the authorities assured all and sundry that everything was in order.
This, however, has clearly not been the case.
What about those months in 2009 when the pollution-collecting precipitators at the Marsa power station were simply switched off after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority issued a stop order on the owners of the quarry where the fly ash was being kept, and also stopped them from using the fly ash as a mixer in its concrete? Once the precipitators were switched off, all the pollution collected was simply blown into the atmosphere, at a rate of a tonne a day for effectively seven whole months.
That incident may never have come to light had this newspaper not broken the story last year. One wonders how many similar incidents our air, environment and possibly our health have been subjected to.
The previously mysterious origins of the pollution has been a continual source of discontent and indeed a real, serious concern for several thousands of citizens, many of whom fear for the their own health and the health of their families.
Such fears are perfectly valid when a government has consistently appeared unable or unwilling in the past to identify the source of that pollution. To allay those fears, and we hope they can be allayed for we truly hope they are unfounded, what is urgently needed is an independent study on how the pollution could have affected the health of residents in nearby localities.
Those people deserve no less than that.
Libyan patients
Much has been said about the handful of Libyan casualties of war that Malta is currently treating, and much of what has been said is, if truth be told, shameful.
Certain quarters, most notably the union representing the country’s nurses and midwives, have taken considerable exception to these casualties being treated in Malta.
Despite the problems with waiting lists and patients being lined up on stretchers at Mater Dei from time to time – which is in itself obviously a serious problem, it is very hard to believe that this country, which is far from being a Third World country, is unable to handle a little more than a handful of extra patients, patients who are in urgent need of medical attention that they cannot be given at home for very obvious reasons. As far as we know, the profession of healthcare does not recognise nationality, colour or creed.
What if, heaven forbid, there is a horrific coach crash tomorrow? Would the hospital not be able to handle the intake, or would we need to ask the casualties their nationalities in some new form of triage?
Thankfully, we have not yet heard complaints about the five Libyan children being treated in Malta – four for congenital ailments, and another for a bone condition. That, it is presumed, would be going a step too far.
The Archbishop of Tripoli has appealed for nearby countries to help treat Libyan casualties with severe spinal injuries, people who risk becoming permanently paralysed if they are not operated upon in time, something that is practically impossible in Libya at the moment.
Like his, there are hundreds and thousands of similar pleas. It is hoped Malta will continue to attempt to answer the calls that it can and that it will not be dissuaded by such shallowness.