Sliema residents, sick and fed up of the pollution blighting the locality, have reiterated their worry at the amount of contamination they are living in.

But it is not only Sliema. We will start this editorial by stating the obvious. Malta’s geographic limitations are what they are. We have no natural forests to replenish oxygen levels, we have built up a great deal of our tiny island and our roads are very cramped – to say the least.

Let us tackle the most obvious source of pollution in our towns and villages – car exhaust. One does not have to be an emissions scientist to realise that despite all campaigns and fines being dished out, Malta is literally choked by vehicle exhaust fumes.

We still have ancient trucks and cars which pass through village cores and spew out noxious, acrid fumes. Again, a mere look at the walls of house facades in Sliema, Gzira, Msida, Qormi, Hamrun and virtually every other larger town to see just how bad it is.

The stone is black.

One seriously wonders how trucks, buses, delivery vans and ancient car owners get away with it. In 2009, it is possible to get a ticket for having a dirty number plate, or a broken wing mirror, yet do we ever see wardens or police officers booking the truck or bus driver who leaves a black pall of smoke in his wake? Very rarely would have to be the answer.

While it is all well and good to promote hybrid cars, cleaner and smaller car engines, cycling and walking, unless we get these vehicles off the road, we are not going to get anywhere.

Anyone who thinks the problem is not that bad simply ought to stand in St Anne’s Street in Floriana and see how long they can hack it. Any vehicle which is clearly a polluter should simply be ordered off the road and no licence should be reissued.

There are, of course, other sources of particulate matter, but let us just talk about pollution in general, a daily thing.

Another issue related to vehicles and pollution is quite simply... noise. There are various contributing factors, the 60-year-old farmer on his two-stroke moped... minus a silencer.

Anyone that has heard the racket these vehicles generate will immediately sympathise with this line of thought... Get them off the road. Why is it illegal to play music at a certain level when these motorcyclists get away with it? If one of those vehicles driving around a village core is not a source noise pollution, then what chance do we have?

On the same note, why are the police and wardens not booking boy racers with massive ‘silencer’ cowlings that are designed to make the engine sound louder? Is it acceptable in a country with roads as small (and as near to urban areas) to be driving around with the sound of a piston engine aircraft? Of course it isn’t.

Last but not least, the boy racers again. Why is it illegal to make noise after 11pm when one of the above mentioned ‘silenced’ cars is accompanied by a mobile night club? Sometimes these vehicles drive past blaring out techno music and the reverberations can be felt through house walls. Again... it’s ridiculous. It’s about time that the authorities got to grips with these issues. We reiterate, it is not fair to book people for minor offences, yet allow others to get away with what we have mentioned. Time to get your act together.