A new national air quality forecast service providing unprecedented and detailed information about air pollutants that can damage people's health has been launched by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The forecasting service, which is freely available on the website airquality.ie, divides the entire country into 9 sq/km blocks.
It provides two updated scores daily, forecasts about how healthy the air is for breathing and the level of key pollutants in each block.
Air pollution, which includes tiny particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, is a killer.
Some of these pollutants can pass through our lungs, get into people's blood streams and over time cause significant damage to multiple organs.
The World Health Organization said air pollution causes four million premature deaths from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and asthma every year.
According to the EU, about 1,300 of those premature deaths take place in Ireland each year.
This new EPA national air quality forecast service will help people in Ireland to manage those risks.
Every morning and every evening a highly detailed map of the country will be updated on the webpage air quality.ie with key pollution data.
This includes three-day forecasts, for today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, for the air quality index for health, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone for every 9sq/km block of land in the country.
This will enable people, particularly those with respiratory or heart conditions, or any sensitivity to air quality to plan, reschedule or relocate physical activities to times and locations that could be better for their health.
The EPA has consistently highlighted concerning localised air quality issues in Ireland.
Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) from burning solid fuel and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from vehicle emissions are the main pollutants impacting on people's health.
The Asthma Society of Ireland (ASI) said the new service will be an important resource for everyone with respiratory conditions.
The CEO of the ASI, Eilís Ní Chathnía, welcomed the forecast launch.
Ms Chathnía said: "Ireland has the highest incidence rate of asthma in Europe with one in ten children and one in 13 adults developing the condition - with 890,000 people likely to develop asthma in their lifetimes.
"The Asthma Society welcomes the opportunity to be associated with the launch of the forecast."
Marking the launch of the forecast, Dr Micheál Lehane, Director of the EPA’s Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring, said: "Air pollution can seriously impact people’s health; the air quality forecast will provide an important health and air quality resource for everyone, and will be even more impactful for those of us who are particularly affected by poor air quality, including those suffering from respiratory disease and asthma."
"The forecast will also serve policy makers as a valuable tool for analysing air quality in Ireland," he said.
The air quality forecast maps are produced by computer models which have been developed under the EU LIFE Emerald project.
The models use Irish and European data such as air quality measurements, forecast weather and land cover data.
The EPA has partnered on this with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), the Health Service Executive (HSE), VITO which is a Belgian research institute, University College Cork (UCC) and the ASI.
The forecast and further information on air quality and the Air Quality Index for Health are available on airquality.ie.
