A burning issue: how smoky fuels are adding to our pollution problems

Seemingly eradicated for good in Dublin 30 years ago, smog is back with a vengeance. What are the health implications in the age of Covid-19, and how can it be seen off a second time?

It is understood that the government will publish a Clean Air Strategy in January. As part of it, a consultation will be launched on the banning of all smoky fuels in Ireland

More than 30 years ago, increasing levels of air pollution in Dublin became the subject of frenzied international media coverage. “This ‘fair city’ of song is enshrouded in a pall of smog that has turned day into night and is threatening the lives of residents,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1988.

“The major cause of the city's ‘smog’ problem is the extensive use of coal for domestic heating,” the Economist magazine said, suggesting that bureaucratic barriers ...