More than 350 lives are saved every year in Dublin due to the improvement in air quality since the imposition of a ban in 1990 on the sale of smoky coal, according to a study published today.
The study was conducted by a team of four led by Prof Luke Clancy of St James's Hospital, and including Dr Pat Goodman of the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dr Hamish Sinclair of Trinity College, and Prof Doug Dockery, of Harvard University in Boston.
As reported in this week's edition of The Lancet, the British medical journal, the team found that annual total mortality in Dublin had fallen by 5 .7 per cent, respiratory mortality by 15.5 per cent and cardiovascular mortality by 10.3 per cent, as a result of the ban.
"This means that there have been on average 116 less respiratory deaths and 243 less cardiovascular deaths per year - that is 359 less deaths in Dublin per year directly attributable to the improvements in air quality as a result of the coal ban."
This finding vindicates the thesis advanced by those who campaigned for the ban - including Prof Clancy - that it would produce measurable health benefits.
"We contend that the net gain is very substantial," the four authors say.
In 1982, Prof Clancy had observed a doubling in patients' deaths associated with a smog episode at the time. As a result, he became a prominent campaigner to ban coal-burning in Dublin - a move strongly resisted by the coal importers.
The proposed ban met with great resistance from the industry, which produced an "independent" economic and public health analysis casting doubt on the research findings and warning of the dire economic consequences of banning coal.
Only after a long campaign and further serious smog episodes - which breached EU air pollution limits - was the coal ban finally imposed in September 1990, largely at the instigation of Ms Mary Harney, then minister of state at the Department of the Environment.
Since then, 3,950 fewer people have died from illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. "Neither the lessening of illness nor the quality of life gain for the whole population is addressed in this paper but they are enormous," the authors say.
The ban on bituminous coal resulted in a 70 per cent reduction in black smoke in the city as it was replaced by smokeless coal and natural gas.
It has since been extended to other urban centres, where the findings of the Dublin study are likely to be mirrored.
Numerous studies have confirmed that higher air pollution levels lead to an increase in mortality rates. This study shows that decreasing air pollution is associated with a marked reduction in mortality. And the dire economic consequences which were forecast have not materialised.
A Dutch study of air pollution, also published in The Lancet