If you walk or cycle down Fgura’s main road during peak hours, you could inhale up to 20 times as much soot from diesel engines as staying indoors, according to recent research.

On average, the amount of soot in the air – properly known as black carbon – is three to four times higher outdoors than indoors in Fgura.

The high levels indicated the main source of this particulate pollution to be traffic, the study concluded.

“Pedestrians and cyclists in these roads are being exposed to significant levels of particulates at peak hours, while only a fraction of this pollution enters into a home between the two busy streets,” said consultant respiratory physician Martin Balzan, one of the authors of the study.

Pedestrians and cyclists in these roads are being exposed to significant levels of particulates

Soot is also emitted by power stations. However, when data for the study was being collected the plant in Marsa had nearly been phased out completely.

There was half the amount of black carbon in the air on the other side of the Cottonera lines, in Cospicua.

The data was collected between January and March last year by Dr Balzan and Michael Pace Bardon from the Department of Medicine at Mater Dei, for a study called ‘Respira’.

Fgura was chosen because of its high prevalence of respiratory symptoms and heavy traffic.

The aim was to map black carbon levels along the streets of Fgura and Cospicua and compare them with indoor levels.

A small portable meter was carried by a pedestrian between 4pm and 6pm along a six-kilometre course on busy Hompesch Road, as well as along a side street – Mater Boni Consili Road – and in the walled adjacent town of Cospicua. The indoor measurement was taken in a house situated between Hompesch and Mater Boni Consili Roads.

Measurements were taken every 30 seconds, and it resulted that all three traffic outdoor areas had far higher levels of soot than indoors, while Fgura had higher levels of pollution than Cospicua.

The highest pollution levels recorded outdoors were 20 times above the indoor levels.

Dr Balzan said that although the recommended level of particulate matter is below 1mg, all four sites recorded an average higher than 1mg/m³.

The study was presented recently at the Malta Medical School conference.

Fumes get in through the vents

Protect yourself from road fumes

Next time you are stuck in traffic, roll up your windows and set the ventilation system to ‘recirculate’ – usually a button with a circular arrow placed inside the car showing that air is circling.

“Drivers who opt to use the re-circulate air option in cars, present in most modern vehicles, while keeping the windows closed have much lower exposure to pollutants inside their car,” Dr Balzan said.

While sitting in your car, you are probably breathing in pollution through the windows or vents, and according to research, you could protect yourself by using this setting.

This simple measure has been shown to cut pollution inside cars to just 20 per cent of on-road levels. This compares to being exposed to up to 80 per cent of the pollution found in traffic when using a setting that draws in outside air.