AIR quality in Limerick comes way down the ranks in a new report published by the European Environment Agency.
The Treaty City’s air quality rated just “fair” in the report, which involved testing over the last two years.
But no Irish city was classified as having “good” air quality during that period.
A “fair” rating means the level of air pollution is just above the annual guideline recommended by the World Health Organization of 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m³).
Dublin, Cork and Waterford joined Limerick in the “fair” rating, with only 11 cities covered in the report listed as having” good” air
Limerick was ranked in 73rd place in the study(8.5µg/ m³) with Waterford in 130th position out of 344 European cities surveyed with 9.5µg/ m³.
The results are based on over 400 monitoring stations across 31 European countries including all 27 EU member states.
The report ranks cities from the cleanest to the most polluted on the basis of average levels of fine particulate matter (which include dust, soot and smoke) otherwise known as PM2.5 over the past two years.
The “good” rating means their PM2.5 levels were below the World Health Organisation’s guidelines for long-term exposure to particulate matter of 5µg/m³.
PM2.5 is the air pollutant which has the highest impact on health in terms of premature death and disease.
