Dublin’s air quality has dramatically improved since smoky coal was banned.
A Blackrock College student has found that a type of fungus that couldn’t be found in places 25 years ago, has now grown.
Harry Kearns is one of the students hoping to impress the judges at the 2016 BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition at the RDS.
Harry says lichen have grown in places where they didn’t before the ban in 1990:
“The lichens have grown and you can see from the species that is growing that the air quality has improved alot and that the sulphur dioxide levels have fallen dramatically in the air”.
“Lichens grew in every square kilometre where there wasn’t before, we found some good lichen growth in places like Tallaght, some areas were zoned into the highest zone so the air quality has improved dramatically”.
Another group of students looked at the effect the weather has on our mental health.
They looked at a number of factors including CSO statistics, the sale of anti-depressants and tweets during weather events to see how it affected people's moods.
Kyle Buttimer was part of the group that carried out the research, he said alot of people think it’s just bad weather but “any changes in weather from the norm will definitely affect people”.
He added that while SAD(Seasonal Affective Disorder) did cause an increase in the prescribing of anti-depressants in winter months, they found that here in Dublin there was a link between good weather and increased suicide rates.
The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition is open to the public from January 7th until January 9th.
