YOUR throat itches, you have a belly wrenching cough, your head and chest hurt, and you cough till you throw up or are out of breath and start to whoop, (remember whooping cough). You may even think you are going to die. And no amount of cough syrup relieves this dreaded cough.

Eric Lewis' column, (Coughing Myself To Death in the October 12 edition of the Advocate) will tickle your funny bone, but to him and the hundreds of sufferers of this malady now prevalent in Barbados, it is no laughing matter.

No, you are not suffering from tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, dengue, influenza, or even Aids. You are simply a victim of dust-itis, the new epidemic raging, that will soon replace Dengue fever as the No. 1 Public Health disease in Barbados.

It comes from breathing dirty polluted air, full of dust, caused by all the construction and the indiscriminate digging up of roads, without any regard for our noses and lungs and our inability to deal with the heavy concentration of dust prevalent in the air; not to mention the excess gasoline and diesel fumes from the more than 80 000 licensed and God knows how many, unlicensed, vehicles on the roads.

There are far too many vehicles on the roads and the time has come to restrict the number of vehicles otherwise we are simply going to choke to death. Imagine what is happening to the poor asthmatics and the sufferers of allergic respiratory disorders, who must be smelling hell. And then there's the poor housewife who can't keep the house clean for the dust.

Portvale Sugar Factory, in the crop season, makes life even more uncomfortable for nearby residents with all of the soot it is spouting out into the air from its chimneys.

No more blue skies. Everywhere is grey. On any road in Barbados, look a few feet over your head and you will see a grey mist hanging in the air. That's it, the pollution.

Thirty years ago, this was a clean country of which we could all boast. Now, it is the dirtiest of the dirty. Pollution is everywhere, on land, sea and sky.

I am told, on good authority, that the sea all along the West Coast is seriously polluted with bacteria. In addition, the Government is planning to make matters worse by pumping the effluent, that is, treated sewerage from the South coast project, into the sea.

Years ago, we allowed all the hotels on the West Coast to pollute our beaches

by piping their sewerage into the sea. Next, we allowed the farmers to pollute our underground water by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Now we know why our reefs are virtually dead.

Bajans are now being asked to drink brackish desalinated seawater, while the tourist ships purchase our high quality water.

We are in the 21st century, and believe it or not, our drinking water is being piped in mains which are lined with lead and are over fifty years old. The engineers at the Water Works Department are the only people who don't know lead is poisonous and dangerous to our health.

Meanwhile, asbestos is still present at the National Housing Corporation housing units in the Pine and probably other areas over ten years after I first brought it to the Public attention. All of these are serious major public health problems, which are all preventable and deserve our immediate attention.

Lastly, I must touch on Dengue Fever and its eradication. The prevalence of this fever in Barbados over the past five years poses a major threat to residents and tourists alike, and to our economy.

Why does the Ministry of Health waste precious time and money on fogging, when it is well known that fogging is an ineffective way to kill or eradicate mosquitoes is beyond me. Mere window dressing, I daresay.

It would be far more profitable and effective to send public health inspectors into the breeding grounds, such as the gullies in Sandy Lane and elsewhere, to treat all these catchments areas where swarms of mosquitoes abound and breed.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is not the only major problem facing the new Minister of Health. I sincerely trust he will pay attention to these important public health matters.

• Dennis L. Bailey