Did Phil Hogan save your life?

32 April 2015

’VE recently joined a running group, and think a

lot about air pollution as I gasp my way around

Bailieboro, Co Cavan. Having trained as a cardiac

technician (many years ago) I worked in the Mater

Hospital in Dublin when Mary Harney ﬁrst brought

in the smoky-coal ban, and the eﬀect – the

ambulances stopped arriving. Immediately.

Deaths from heart disease dropped by 15%,

deaths from respiratory disease dropped by 10%

and all other deaths (except those by trauma)

dropped by 7%. In fact, according to an article by

Luke Clancy et al in the Lancet, 357 lives have been

saved in Dublin every year since the smoky coal ban

came into force.

One in three of us will have a heart attack. Indeed

this accounts for my sudden interest in ﬁtness as I hit

my ﬁftieth birthday. One in three of us will get

cancer. So a drop in mortality of up to 15% from

these illnesses is very signiﬁcant.

And the beneﬁt of the smoky coal ban in monetary

terms was €20 million, according to the Department

of the Environment.

But what if you don’t live in Dublin? Are rural lungs

as important as urban lungs? Phil Hogan extended

the ban on smoky coal to any town with a population

of over 50,000, thus saving the lives of many more

Irish people.

But I never thanked him. Because the problem with

environmental pollution is that it goes unnoticed

– killing us softly. A report from the World Health

Organisation conﬁrmed 7 million people died in

2012 from air pollution. They stated that air

pollution is the single

But as I puﬀ and wheeze my way around Bailieboro,

the things which scare me are dark alleyways, creepy

strangers, and a whole mass of other harmless

objects. In reality the danger lies in the smoky air I’m

breathing and the water (taken from a well) which I

carry in my water bottle. But I don’t notice the

environmental dangers.

Constitutional protection of our right to clean air,

water and protection of our biodiversity would give

visibility to our environment – it would give the

environment the status it deserves. Our constitution

is not just a legal document, it is a philosophical

document. It sets out our vision, our ‘ten

commandments’ for our country – the things we hold

precious. And it shows that our priorities were

skewed. Property has been protected in our

constitution for many years, but our children have

only recently received Constitutional protection –

and the environment? It’s not mentioned at all.

To enforce environmental protection we

frequently have to take environmental cases to the

European courts. This is a long, slow process, which

generally results in damage to Ireland’s reputation

and subsequent ﬁnes. The Irish taxpayer could spend

this money in more productive ways. Constitutional

protection, along the lines long-since enshrined in

South Africa for example, would allow us to sort out

environmental problems in our own backyard.

But meanwhile our health goes downhill. A study

aptly called ‘Every Breath You Take’ showed that

97% of European citizens are exposed to ground

ozone levels above those deemed safe by the World

Health Organisation. It’s enough to make you gasp.

And a recent study of 345,143 Dutch patients by

Joanda Maas et al showed that deaths from

depression and anxiety decreased signiﬁcantly if you

lived within 1km of a quality green space. This was

especially important for children and those living in

low socio-economic groups

So even if we don’t concern ourselves with the

intrinsic rights of nature, and

we would just like to live a few

years longer, it makes sense to

give the environment our

strongest legal protection –

constitutional. We need to

demand our right to clean air,

water and biodiversity,

constitutionally. We must

lobby as if our lives depended

on it – because they do!

Our politicians are currently

writing their election

manifestos, and problems

with the healthcare budget,

access to mental health

services, Accident and

Emergency Depts. and waiting

lists are issues which concern us all. But wouldn’t it

be better not to get sick in the ﬁrst place? Clean air,

water and biological diversity are key to our health,

both physical and mental.

Small towns in Ireland still don’t have a smoky coal

ban. As I jog through the smog in Bailieboro I think

about smoky coal, our Constitution and even Phil

Hogan. We can continue to introduce piecemeal

environmental legislation. It’s better than nothing

– but it is ﬁddling while Rome (or Bailieboro) burns.

Constitutional environmental protection is required.

Or we can sit idly by and watch while our

environment goes up in smoke. •

Why the