Yet more statistics were released this week on the deadly toll the world’s cruise liners are taking on Europe and, in our specific case, Malta, and the reading is most concerning indeed.

It should, in fact, make us do a little bit of national soul-searching and rethink exactly how much, in terms of human health, we should be bending over backwards to accommodate such a heavily polluting industry in the interest of the tourist buck.

Figures released on Tuesday show that there will be no less than 122 calls of port in Malta by what have been found to be the world’s most polluting cruise liners.  By contrast, cruise ships equipped with technologies that reduce air pollution caused by exhaust systems will carry out only 33 port calls in Malta.

We as a nation have always been more than happy to welcome tourists, and especially their wallets, but we really need to also be questioning what that tourist euro is costing the country in terms of its citizens’ health.

Citizens’ health is the catchphrase here, this is not necessarily about the carbon footprint the industry is leaving on the face of the planet, it is about our clear and present state of health.

It was recently reported how cruise ships in Europe's ports and coasts produce nearly 10 times more sulphur dioxide than the entire fleet of an estimated 260 million cars circulating across Europe.

In Malta, it is reported that 83 cruise ships docked in the Grand Harbour in 2017, producing 502.8 tons of sulphur dioxide emissions, compared to some 283,000 road vehicles, which, overall, generated 3.4 tons of sulphur dioxide. As such, ships produced 178 times more of the pollutant. And, the figures also showed, in terms of nitrogen oxide those 83 ships alone produced and equivalent of 70% of all emissions by road vehicles and 30% of PM2.5 pollution.

Match that with 2015 figures showing how the cruise line industry contributed around €90 million through direct expenditure into the Maltese economy.  But, on the other hand, a study by the World Health Organisation found that in the same year, 2015, air pollution as a whole cost the economy an annual €550 million in diseases and death.

As such, let’s say that of the annual €550 million in diseases and death attributable to air pollution, half, around €225 million, is attributable to the cruise liner industry, which operate in the heavily-populated Grand Harbour region.

That is an awful lot of expenditure on health in return for accommodation these cruise liners, and while our analysis is somewhat basic, we urge the experts out there to carry out a proper cost-benefit analysis of the situation.

But that is not what really matters, is it? What really matters is our lives and our quality of life, and not the tourism euro for which we appear ready to sacrifice our very health.

Drastic and courageous measures should be implemented, but would the country, for example, consider banning cruise liners that do not run on, for example, natural gas? One would highly doubt that, but it would be quite a statement for a country that seeks to position itself as the best in Europe.

As stated above, this year we will have 122 calls by the world’s most polluting cruise liners, and 33 ‘greener’ cruise liners. Is it not about time that we begin being a little more selective about the pollution in our ports, which lie so close to heavily populated areas?

It may be just about time to start thinking about which cruise liners we allow to call in Malta, and which we refuse.