Power stations are big, ugly and an easy target for people to pin Malta’s air quality woes on but with a car population exceeding 300,000 few realise that transport is the biggest culprit, according to planning authority officials.

For Martin Seychell, the head of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority Environment Directorate, it will not be enough to raise the emission standards of new vehicles to improve air quality given that the average lifespan of Maltese cars is 15 years.

During a press briefing yesterday, Mr Seychell said that 2008 air quality data indicated that the Msida fixed station registered an annual average concentration of nitrogen oxide which was 52 per cent higher than permitted limits.

“The reason for the exceedance in Msida is traffic,” Mr Seychell said, insisting it was probably an indication of air quality in the central part of the island.

He said that although petrol was a cleaner fuel than diesel, the latter gave more mileage per litre, which meant that in the long run the environmental damage produced by either fuel balanced each other out.

Mr Seychell insisted that transport was a major issue and measures had to be taken to curb car usage. Public transport reform was an important tool in the fight for better air quality, he added, insisting that if behavioural patterns did not change more measures would have to be taken to wean people off their private car.