Fresh Air

As I keep telling the kids: get out there for some fresh air, it's good for you. And, if it keeps them away from the TV / computer / playstation and Xbox, it's good for my electricity bill. I guess if I extend that argument further, I use less power, which uses less carbon-based fuel and reduced emission. So it makes the air fresher, which is good for the kids. So the logic takes me full circle.

The problem is that "the powers that be" don't seem to share the simplicity of that notion, and, in fact, the air that we're pumping about our lungs are full of diesel fumes from ships, carbon monoxide from vast quantities of largely unnecessary traffic - has anyone tried breathing and walking along Queensway all at the same time? It borders on the distressing - and, the icing on the cake, is topped by unknown, but desperately noxious emissions from the oil refinery across the Bay. It's in the picture, the infamous Cepsa oil refinery, known as one of the dirtiest refineries in Europe.

I'm really enjoying carving out a new life for my family in Gibraltar: my husband, my two under-10s, and any of the older four who chose to stay in England to pursue further education or jobs, and whom I miss terribly. I hope some, or all of them, will join us here soon. But that does not mean that I am blind to some of the more negative aspects of living in Gibraltar, and serious air pollution is one of them. The quality of the air we breathe daily is so poor, that it almost makes a mockery of the valiant attempts of local groups to reduce the devastating effects on the population's helalth from tobacco smoke. I wonder if anyone can say whether a few fags a day is any worse than trying to breathe when a north- westerly blasts in those sulphurous fumes from the refinery. I may be particularly sensitive, but the air seems oily on those days, sticky against my lungs. Thank goodness for the persistant easterlies that we've been having lately!