Asthma is a problem from which the Maltese, particularly children, have suffered for quite a few years.

The news that the number of cases has stabilised is welcome, but it has also been acknowledged that more needs to be done to try and curb the percentage of sufferers.

The Malta Asthmatic Society certainly has helped raise awareness about asthma and the problems that afflict asthmatics.

But with eight per cent of the Maltese population suffering from the condition, Malta having the worst asthmatic rate in the Mediterranean and the fact that we rank in the worst 25 in the world shows that action needs to be taken.

There have been improvements, of course. As rightly pointed out by parliamentary secretary Helen D’Amato, the ban on smoking in public places has helped dramatically.

This stands to reason: passive smoking seriously harms asthmatics and preventing smokers from lighting up should help them, by at least allowing them to breathe fresh air in enclosed spaces.

The fact that the incidence of asthma has not increased is encouraging and shows that, even if air quality has not improved dramatically, it has at least done so sufficiently to curb the number of asthma cases in young children. Respiratory problems in children aged between five and eight increased from 7.5 per cent in 1994 to 14.8 per cent in 2001, which was an alarming rise indeed.

But on the flipside, the number of children admitted to hospital with severe attacks fell to 13 per cent in 2001 from 22 per cent in 1994.

Smoking in general has also been the subject of much campaigning lately and this has yielded positive results, with a national health study showing that fewer children were willing to try lighting up.

In 2000, only 19.1 per cent of children up to the age of 15 had not tried smoking, but in 2002 the percentage of those resisting the urge was 24.7 – yet another positive sign.

Other positives include a better and quicker diagnosis of asthma in sufferers. But as already pointed out, there is still much to be done.

The changes need to be two-fold, with even better diagnoses and treatment a must.

One is not saying that the levels of care offered are bad – but in the health sector – as mentioned by the minister time and time again – there is always room for improvement.

The second is more complex – improving the quality of our air. It is true, the smoking ban has helped, as has the use of low sulphur content fuel, but there is still a long way to go.

One simply has to look at the blackened façades of buildings in busy areas to realise that there is a substantial amount of soot in the air. Computer monitors cleaned in the morning can be covered in a film of black soot by the end of the evening – and this is the air we have to breathe in.

Cars are submitted to VRT tests for emissions and we also have the emissions watchdog SMS line. But again, one only has to take a look around and see the black fumes belching out of the back of trucks, lorries, old vehicles, buses and many others to realise the extent of the problem.

You can still have to walk through a cloud of half-burnt petroleum soot when a smoggy vehicle drives past, and this is one area that definitely needs attention.

It is useless preaching about emissions and then allowing perpetrators to continue to do so.

Improving the quality of our air will certainly take time, and perhaps the approach of tackling the smaller problems before the bigger ones might be the correct way to deal with the situation.

But – and this is paramount – we cannot sit back and say that incidences of asthma have reached a plateau.

We must continue to strive to improve air quality, which will be of benefit to an asthma sufferer as well as to any other person in the country.