Why Have We Stopped Worrying about Air Pollution?

For some reason, we think that we no longer to be concerned about air pollution. No one seems to be worried for their health anymore – not to mention the wellbeing of the planet. However, the EU is suing the UK as we have failed to reduce “excessive” levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from traffic, and if that is anything to go by – and I’d dare say it is – air pollution is still an issue we need to be concerned with.

 

Environmental wellness expert Lucy Siegle, author of Green Living in the Urban Jungle, notes, ‘I wasn’t about for the great smog of 1952, but naturally I’ve heard a lot about this fabled pea-souper. There’s a suggestion we’ve moved on from air pollution, that we’ve somehow solved it. Not so. We might not have smog, but we still have chronic pollution. Road transport remains the largest single source of nitrogen-dioxide pollution. Fresh stats are emerging for 2013 and they’re not pretty. In Scotland 17 sites have failed to meet 2010 targets set in the Climate Change Act for air pollution (12 failed in 2012). In Northern Ireland 502 avoidable deaths were attributable to pollution – 10 times the number of road deaths. And there are similar pollution pockets all over the country.’

 

According to Siegle, ‘Incredibly there’s no obligation for local authorities to tackle the fine particulates air pollution that can be taken deep into the body and are thought to do the greatest amount of damage. (In Scotland, fine particulate matter is only monitored in six sites.) According to campaigners (Friends of the Earth remain the most vociferous group on this), EU levels on particulate air pollution are set too high. This conclusion was backed by a large-scale study published recently in the British Medical Journal. But the EU’s not planning substantive changes until 2030. So it’s up to us not to bang a drum but rather a bucket. Bucket brigades (gcmonitor.org) are a US invention. Community groups learn how to measure local pollution, collecting air samples in a bucket and then using their findings as evidence to fight for clean air. They have been used in the UK, but I want to see more of them, especially now that citizen science is all the rage.’

 

Britain has now been given two months to respond to a letter of formal notice from the EU of the intention to take us to court. In a statement, the commission said, ‘Nitrogen dioxide is the main precursor for ground-level ozone causing major respiratory problems and leading to premature death. City-dwellers are particularly exposed, as most nitrogen dioxide originates in traffic fumes … air pollution limits are regularly exceeded in 16 zones across the UK.’ The commission added that Britain has not presented any ‘credible and workable plan’ for meeting air quality standards by 2015. Clearly, the authorities are failing to clean up the airspace – so now it’s down to us.

 

But what else can you do to reduce the impact of air pollution on your environmental wellness? Siegle points out, ‘Some neighbourhoods have quietly been designated pollution hotspots and forced to implement an action plan. Is your neighbourhood one of these? If so, unlikely inspiration comes from the M1: more specifically Junction 28 at Matlock, Derbyshire, to Junction 35a north of Rotherham. This passes through a critical pollution pocket where unacceptable levels have been monitored. Consequently proposals are afoot to bring in a “green” speed limit, reducing it to 60mph. This is one of the first incidences I can think of where the right to breathe has been put ahead of the right to drive.’

Categories: Air Pollution, bucket brigades, dioxide, Environmental Wellness, green speed limit, nbsp, Nitrogen, nitrogen dioxide, pollution, siegle

Cyclists: How to Reduce Your Exposure to Air Pollutants

They say that cycling is good for your wellbeing, and for environmental wellness. Not only do you get fitter; you also reduce your carbon footprint – win-win. However, when you’re cycling behind a fuming bus or taxi, and inhale that diesel-esque aroma, do you ever wonder: is this really the “wellness” option?

 

According to environmental wellness expert Peter Walker, ‘Cycling does remain many, many times better for your health than not cycling, even factoring in exposure to pollution and the risk of accident. What’s more surprising is that on two wheels you might even be exposed to less of the smelly stuff than those using other forms of transport. The more full answer is, inevitably, slightly mixed. Air pollution is a very real danger, with even conservative estimates gauging it prematurely kills almost 30,000 Britons a year, making it the most deadly public health hazard apart from smoking. And yet, experts say, there are a range of measures cyclists can take to limit their exposure, from taking quieter back routes, to cycling at particular times of the day. There’s even an argument that pollution masks, once common in cities like London but little seen these days, might help.’

 

With urban areas, the real villain behind the peril is the diesel engine, says Gary Fuller, an expert on air quality at King’s College London. Unlike petrol vehicles, which have somewhat cleaned up their emissions in recent years, diesels still emit lots of black carbon. Fuller warns, ‘People should be worrying about diesel traffic and particle exposure, and also about nitrogen dioxide. The thing about these is they haven’t really improved in urban areas for the last decade or so. We’ve managed to clean up air pollution emissions in terms of nitrogen dioxide from petrol cars. Buy a petrol car today and it will emit about four-tenths as much in oxides as a car you bought 10 or 12 years ago. But for diesels, despite the fact we have ever-tighter emissions standards the conditions in which the emissions test is performed doesn’t really reflect the real world.’

 

If you’re reading this and thinking: “That’s OK, I don’t live in London,” Fuller points out that diesel pollution is an issue for cyclists everywhere. ‘It’s not just a London problem,’ he says. ‘You can go out into apparently rural areas with an A-road travelling through a small village and you can find EU limits being exceeded.’ So, as a cyclist, what can you do to limit your exposure? Walker notes, ‘One simple idea is to take quieter back streets, where the concentration of some pollutants can be considerably lower than on main roads. As an illustration, the London Air website provides a live map of smog levels in the capital, showing how so much of it is clustered around big roads.’

 

It might also be a good idea to consider when you cycle, Fuller advises, as ozone can peak in the afternoon – especially in the summer – and this can have a significant effect on your lung wellness. ‘Ozone follows a distinct diurnal pattern,’ Fuller explains. ‘It’s always greatest in the mid to late afternoon. It’s not so much for urban cyclists but if you’re looking to have a day out on the bike maybe think about travelling in the morning and then the evening, avoiding the mid afternoon on the hottest, most polluted days. That can reduce your exposure quite a lot.’ King’s College London academic, Ian Mudway, an expert on respiratory toxicology, points to research that shows masks can filter out some smog. He comments, ‘I might say that people who wear them probably overestimate the benefits that they’re delivering, but I think there’s enough in that paper to say they make some difference.’

Categories: Air Pollution, college london, Cycling, diesel, Environmental Wellness, exposure, fuller, london, nitrogen dioxide, urban areas

London Failing: EU Sues UK Over Lack of Clean Air Action

As a country, we could face fines of up to £300m a year and embarrassing court appearances due to poor environmental wellness. The European commission has launched legal proceedings against the UK as we have failed to reduce “excessive” levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution from traffic, in spite of 15 years of warnings and several extensions and postponements granted to the government. Yet while other European countries have also failed to meet the air quality directive since 2008, Britain has been singled out for our “persistent” breaches of the air quality directive by the EU environment commissioner, Janez Potočnik.

 

Britain has now been given two months to respond to a letter of formal notice of the intention to take us to court. In a statement, the commission said, ‘Nitrogen dioxide is the main precursor for ground-level ozone causing major respiratory problems and leading to premature death. City-dwellers are particularly exposed, as most nitrogen dioxide originates in traffic fumes … air pollution limits are regularly exceeded in 16 zones across the UK.’ The commission added that Britain has not presented any ‘credible and workable plan’ for meeting air quality standards by 2015.

 

So why are we being singled out? According to Potočnik, the death toll of poor air quality outstrips even road traffic accidents, making poor air quality the number one environmental cause of premature death in the EU. Last year, Potočnik pointed out that poor air quality ‘is an invisible killer and it prevents many people from living a fully active life. It already costs Europe €330bn-€940bn (£277bn-£789bn) a year in extra health costs and prematurely killed over 100,000 people a year.’ In the UK, most of our cities do indeed plan to reduce traffic fumes to within the legal limit by 2020 – the problem is London. London has the highest levels of NO2 of any European capital city, and our capital has insisted that it could not meet its NO2 targets set in 1999 until 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, the UK has the highest proportion of zones breaching legal limits.

 

A Friends of the Earth spokeswoman explained, ‘This much-needed legal action will hopefully end a national scandal that causes tens of thousands of people to die prematurely each year because of poor air quality. The UK government and mayor of London must now take tough and urgent measures to protect us all – particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, who are hardest hit. If Owen Paterson wants to avoid another disaster for his department he will need an ambitious plan to protect people from deadly diesel fumes. We need a national network of low emission zones to save lives and make the UK a world leader in clean transport.’

 

James Thornton, director of Client Earth, a legal NGO that took the government to the supreme court last year, asserted, ‘We have the right to breathe clean air and the government has a legal duty to protect us from air pollution. The commission has singled out the UK following the supreme court’s landmark decision last year. The UK has some of the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in Europe.’ Simon Birkett, director of Clean Air in London, noted, ‘This is the EU at its best taking legal action against the UK at its worst.’ However, a spokesperson from the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commented, ‘Air quality has improved significantly in recent decades. Just like for other member states, meeting the NO2 limit values alongside busy roads has been a challenge. That is why we are investing heavily in transport measures to improve air quality around busy roads and we are working with the commission to ensure this happens as soon as possible.’

Categories: Air Pollution, air quality, EU, highest levels, legal action, nitrogen dioxide, poor air, poto nik, traffic fumes, UK, uk government