Is the air in Midleton bottom of the class?

Students at a school in Midleton were alarmed when a recent scientific exercise suggested they had the worst air quality from all the schools in the Cork region.

The students at St Colman’s Community College were participating in a national air quality monitoring project sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As part of their research, the students set up three monitoring stations and were disappointed to find that one of their tubes showed the worst air quality of any participating school in the county.

Ava Lutz, a first year student at St Colman’s, attributed the high pollution to congestion outside the school: “The traffic gets quite bad at certain times in the day with lots of cars and trucks backed up outside the school.”

Teacher Proinsias Ó Tuama, who guided the students through the project congratulated his students on their work but said the findings paint a worrying picture.

“It is cause for concern when you factor in that there are a few thousand students attending schools in this small geographical area.

“While some students cycle to school, many report that infrastructure needs to be improved upon to encourage more of them to take this mode of transport,” Mr Ó Tuama added.