Reference is made to a statement issued by the Department of Health about rates of cancer and asthma in Malta (Muscat ‘wrong’ on cancer and asthma, 14 January), which is misleading and irresponsible and cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. Unspecified “European studies” are quoted as showing that Malta’s cancer and asthma rates are among the lowest in the EU and, in particular, that asthma prevalence in Maltese men and women is the lowest in the EU. Data on the rates of asthma in our children are either not available or conveniently omitted.
The credibility of this statement is further compromised by a claim that the government has invested heavily in ‘cancer prevention’ (sic) by bearing the “costs of cancer treatment with free-of-charge medicines” and new equipment. This is not prevention.
As to improving air quality, our few urban ‘open spaces’ have not been increased but only embellished while leaving the streets in which people live and walk mostly neglected. This does not alter the fact that there are areas in Malta that are intensely polluted – far beyond what is acceptable. In fact quite the contrary has been happening: our urban environment continues to be suffocated by development of unnecessary apartment blocks which add to the traffic load and intensify street pollution from trapped exhaust fumes.
While incentives to businesses and families to invest in renewable energy are laudable, Malta still lags woefully behind other EU countries with no concrete major developments in renewable energy whatsoever owing to uninformed prejudices, missed opportunities, constant hesitation and foot-dragging. We remain over 99 per cent dependent on polluting power generation.
The Heath Department statement on asthma does not agree with the true picture in Malta. The public perception that asthma is very common in Malta is borne out by facts. In general, the scientific evidence for an association between exposure to fossil fuel emissions and both cancer and asthma is absolutely irrefutable*. Even short-term increases in pollutant concentrations are responsible for overall increases in respiratory disorders and exacerbations of asthma. There is also scientific evidence that residence on or near a major road is associated with increases in the incidence of asthma attacks, the risk of lung cancer and premature mortality from other causes.
Irrespective of the Health Department’s source of information, data on asthma specifically relating to Malta tell a very different story. Malta has been shown to have an exceptionally high general level of consumption of asthma medication and hospital admission rates for asthma. This was found to be especially so in certain areas such as Fgura, Paola, Tarxien, Sta Lucia and Cottonera. The prevalence of asthma or asthma-like symptoms in Fgura were among the highest ever recorded internationally – asthma rates were found to be higher than all other countries, with the exception of Melbourne
As to cancer rates, lung cancer alone is the true index marker of pollution. Lung cancer usually develops through a series of progressive changes in lung tissue over as long as 25 years, it is therefore meaningless to use current lung cancer rates to provide (false) reassurance. Indeed, one could almost say that, if Malta’s fossil fuel emission pollution remains the same (or increases), it can be reasonably predicted that we will see an excess of cancer cases in the present adult and young generation in the coming years.
What is not clearly established is the extent to which emissions from pollution emitted by our power stations contribute to the high asthma rates in comparison to the severe traffic pollution in our streets. One consequence is this: contrary to what we have been told, rates of asthma in certain parts of Malta are alarmingly high.
It can also be truly said that our power generation is still far from ideal because generation from clean renewable sources is still practically zero so that people in certain areas continue to be exposed to excessive fossil fuel emissions. As to pollution in our roads, even if Malta’s national air quality is claimed to largely conform to EU standards, this claim is based on data from our two main monitoring stations as submitted to the EU. These data cannot possibly reflect the intense pollution in narrow streets of most of our predominantly traffic congested urban environment.
Therefore, rather than trying to falsely reassure the electorate with dubious information on the incidence of cancer and asthma which few will believe, any prospective government health minister should be informing us about steps that will be taken by his or her elected government to decrease our current exposure to intense pollution from fossil fuel pollution with the aim of preventing future increases in cancer and other preventable premature deaths from heart and lung disease in coming years and decades.
G.G. Debono MD, DTM & H
Sliema
*References to support statements to back the contents of the above letter can be found in part IV of the Think Tank report “Towards a Low Carbon Society – the Nation's Health, Energy Security and Fossil Fuels” which can be downloaded from http://www.tppi.org.mt/cms/index.php/reports