ENVIRONMENT-JAMAICA: POLLUTED AIR MAKING MANY ILL

KINGSTON, (Mar. 22) IPS - The increasing number of people turning up at hospitals and clinics with respiratory distress has some environmentalists connecting an increase in air pollution with the rash of illnesses.

The latest statistics indicate that in 1996, close to 90,000 persons visited hospitals and other health facilities complaining of some kind of respiratory illness.

By 1997, the number had jumped to 100,000. Although the figures for 1998 are not yet out, they are expected to be higher than the previous year.

"We have already noticed that when we go into areas where there is a high level of respiratory diseases, backyard burning is usually a problem. We are trying to educate the public to do more composting," said Patrece Charles-Freeman, an environmentalist.

To be able to make the definite link between the increase in these illnesses and air pollution, Charles-Freeman and a team from the Environmental Control Division at the Ministry of the Environment has recently set up four air-monitoring sites in Clarendon, a parish situated in central Jamaica.

In that parish, there is a well-established bauxite company, but Charles-Freeman said the team is not targeting only the bauxite company.

"There are many other factors that could be contributing to poor air quality and ill-health -- backyard burning, for example, is very rampant. When we go out into the country areas, almost everybody is burning. They are burning tires, plastics, just about everything, some of which let out hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. They also burn green leaves and this sends up a thick white smoke," she said.

There are not many regulations here regarding backyard burning and this is something that the environmental agencies would have to look at in more detail, said Charles-Freeman.

In Clarendon, the team is going from house to house gathering data from residents on their health status and social practices, among other things, as part of the survey. More than 600 houses have already been surveyed.

In addition to the survey, the team will monitor the air for contaminants that can affect the upper respiratory tract as well as for the fine particles such as alumina dust and cement that would more likely affect the lower respiratory system.

The primary sources here of air pollution -- besides backyard burning -- are from industrial plants like the bauxite companies (although many of these companies have been doing more to control their effluents), sugar factories, various processing plants throughout the island and exhaust fumes from motor vehicles.

Pollutants such as sulphur dioxide get into the atmosphere from power plants and burning of coal or oil.

Carbon monoxide, the main source of which is the exhaust of motor vehicles, is identified here as the single most widespread air pollutant. Health officials note that when this waste -- a thick black smoke -- is absorbed in the blood stream, it reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

In neighboring Trinidad and Tobago late last year, there were reports that noxious gases released into the atmosphere was believed to have caused respiratory problems, skin infections, vomiting, migraine, nausea, sore throat, fatigue and diarrhoea

That led to the government of that twin-island state to close the steam plant at the state-owned oil company Petrorin in the southern part of the country.

Air monitoring equipment has since being installed in the area and the government has enlisted the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to conduct a health survey of the residents.

Charles-Freeman said that as part of the new thrust in Jamaica to examine links between air quality and ill-health, the environmental agencies will have to work with other agencies to develop zoning laws.

Too many people, she said, are building their homes within the radius of an industrial plant, and then still expect to be healthy.

Meanwhile, once the pilot survey is completed, Charles-Freeman and her team hope to move into other areas of the country and establish a system of continuous monitoring of air quality.