For eons now, both the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) have been promising to put anti-air pollution and anti-noise pollution legislation on the statute books of our country and we’ve got no further than promises.
The BLP reigned for 14 years, and the DLP has now been in power for more than six. That is more than two decades of this country having to live with nothing but talk about this issue.
To make things worse, all one ever hears is that, in order to stop the proliferation of chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs), we need only to eat right and exercise.
I do not know what sense it makes to eat right and exercise if the air is more than polluted.
I do not know how long many people can hold their breath, but I do know that they cannot do it for long unless they want to commit suicide.
We now have more proof of the dangers of diesel particulates which are like those of coal dust from which many miners die yearly because they cling to their lungs and give them cancer.
In Barbados one sees diesel vehicles of all kinds leaving behind a cloud of smoke as they traverse our beautiful country.
Can you imagine how someone who already has some kind of respiratory problem would feel if they are standing at a bus stop, walking or driving in another vehicle, when such a vehicle goes by?
Many people come here to get away from their polluted cities and towns, so how do you think that they would feel when they get their lungs full of nitrogen dioxide?
What’s the use of building more and more high-end all-inclusive hotels for the rich, the famous, and the bigoted, if no one wants to come to an air-polluted and noise-polluted country like ours?
It is high time that politicians and others who are heading various agencies let the people know the truth about CNCDs, because it not only has to do with eating habits and exercise, but with unbridled air and noise pollution.
As far as I understand, Trinidad and Tobago has very stringent air-pollution laws, and the manpower to make sure that they are adhered to, so you need not think our laws would be a precedent in CARICOM.
