You may have noticed yesterday that the speed limits on Luxembourg’s motorways were reduced to 90km/h and wondered why on a clear sunny day.

This was because the Administration of environmental information, the police and the Administration of Motorways registered a concentration of ozone in the ambient air exceeding the legal limits allowed.  Or did they?

A communication is generated automatically when the concentration exceeds the value of 160 mg/m3, which is exactly what happened yesterday leading to the automatic speed limit reduction to 90km/h on the motorways to help reduce the pollution.

However the alert turned out to be false as during  a routine inspection of air monitoring devices at the station located in Esch-sur-Alzette, the communication alert was somehow triggered, sending out air pollution warnings around Luxembourg, including to the press, and reducing motorway speeds.

Therefore the Administration for the Environment is quick to point out that any readings taken on 8th march “did not reflect the actual quality of ambient air”.

The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure state that necessary measures to avoid future communication blunders have been made.

One wonders how an alert of this kind can be set off by mistake.  A cleaning lady with her feather duster maybe?