Month: June 2013

London’s congestion: looking at a cleaner future

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Buses, cars and taxis run all over London providing vital transport for more than 8 million people, but such a massive number of vehicles release large quantities of invisible pollutants into the air.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM10 and PM 2.5) make up the majority of the contaminants, predominantly caused by domestic emissions and, above all, traffic fuels.

Dr Gary Fuller senior lecturer in air quality measurement at King’s College London and leader of the London Air Quality Network, said:

“We have been monitoring air quality in London since 1993. During this time we have seen a decrease in some air pollutants but others have being rising. In terms of PM2.5 we are just about meeting the EU levels and compared to other cities in Europe we have a much better situation.
“Nitrogen dioxide still remains a big problem in London. We were supposed to meet the European levels by 2010 and now the final term is 2020, but looking at the current levels of NO2 and the number of diesel cars  in London- it is unlikely that we’ll be able to achieve this target”.

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In 2008 local authorities introduced a Low Emission Zone  to discourage from using most polluting diesel vehicles and in 2o10, mayor Boris Johnson and  Transport for London announced the launch of new charging points in the city and the delivery of around 1000 electric vehicles by 2015.

However, Jenny Bates from Friends of the Earth said: “Local authorities aren’t doing enough. Congestion charging and LEZ are already something but to save our city we need to do much more than that. Closing roads instead of opening new ones, giving people incentives to buy new electric vehicles and providing efficient public transport.”

Jonathan Visscher, media manager at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said that new alternative fuelled and electric vehicles are already on the market and that consumers need to be encouraged to buy them.

“European targets are really tough to achieve but cutting down carbon emissions is a problem that manufacturers take very seriously” he says. “We all play a role in this; manufacturers producing new diesel, petrol and alternative fuelled vehicles, government giving people long-term incentives to buy them and consumers getting interested in the new products.”

However, while waiting to see new electric vehicles on London’s roads, air pollution’s levels remain high.

“What happens with air pollution is sometimes unpredictable” said Mr Fuller “If you look at the tests they had done on new vehicles when they were produced you would expect air pollution to decrease consistently but, especially with NO2, we’re not seeing that in London”

Air pollution: how is it affecting our life?

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While the supreme court ruled last month that the UK is failing to tackle air pollution and the London Assembly is asking mayor, Boris Johnson, for urgent measures to cut down nitrogen dioxide emissions in the city,  air pollution’s  effects on health are still ongoing.

In 2009 COMEAP (Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants) reported that around 29,000 premature deaths per year are due to air pollution and almost 4000 of them are in London alone according to a study commissioned in 2010 by London Local Authority to the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM).

Dr Ian Mudway, lecturer in respiratory toxicology with the Environmental Research Group at King’s College London, says:

“Air pollution is the second greatest environmental risk to public health in UK after cigarette smoking. When people die in car accidents, the dramatic event is right in front of you. When we talk about premature death we talk about those long term effects of air pollution that make your life expectancy shorter every day.”

“The killers” 

The main threat is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a gas caused mainly by traffic and domestic heating – produced mainly by the combination and combustion of oxygen and nitrogen – highly toxic and that contributes along with other substances to the formation of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5).

Dr Gary Fuller, who leads the London Air Quality Network says: “We measure all the pollutants that might affect public health in London every 15 minutes, and especially particulate matter.

“Particulate matter  is an invisible widespread pollutant formed by natural and anthropogenic sources such as combustion engines and solid fuels and it is made by tiny particles that can easily be breathed and seriously affects our respiratory system.”

Long-term exposure is one of the main causes of lung cancer and premature death in people with pre-existing lung or heart diseases.

But what does “premature death” mean? Dr Ian Mudway explains:

“What we are really talking about when we talk about premature deaths, it’s life expectancy” says Dr Mudway, “It means that long-term exposure to air pollution can actually make you loose months or years in the last phase of your life and make the quality of it worse every day.

Brian Miller from IOM explains: “Premature death is a controversial term. What we estimated was the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality risk on population as the equivalent to the number of deaths.”

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What are the real consequences for health?

The World Health Organisation reported in 2013 that short-term exposure to particulate matter can cause serious respiratory conditions such as asthma and other cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary diseases.

Who is at risk?

According to the WHO, the main susceptible groups are the ones with pre-existing or genetic respiratory or cardiovascular diseases and the elderly. Also at risk are children, whose lung’s growth can be seriously affected and as a consequence may develop a chronic deficit in function.

“There are so many variables that come into play; we are all different and genetics is the key. Some people are highly sensitive and some people are bullet-proof, it is really difficult to identify who is at risk and this is why research is crucial. The main problem is that you have no choice about the air you breathe so it doesn’t matter which category you belong to, we are always at risk.”

Main Picture: Cristina Odero

Picture: Wikicommons

 

 

 

 

 

 

Air pollution in the UK: total failure?

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The EU Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC)  requires that all member states hit targets to reduce the main air pollutants in congested urban areas – particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter PM10- by 2015.

The UK was expected to reduce air pollution in most regions of the country, but on May 1st this year the Supreme Court of Justice declared that the plans are on course for failure. Originally the targets were supposed to be met by 2010 but the government asked for a postponement of the deadline. In June 2011 a draft of air quality plans was submitted by the government, and final plans were submitted – including a request for time extension- in September 2011 where it was said that limit values in 16 zones including London would be met by January 2015. Since then further plans have been submitted showing possible compliance between 2015 and 2025, however no official request for this time extention was made.

Maria Arnold, from campaign group ClientEarth, who brought the court case to the Supreme Court, said:

“The Supreme Court’s declaration sent a very strong message to government. As yet we have not seen any evidence that Defra have increased their commitment to tackling this issue, in fact their source in the media was quoted as saying ‘Air quality has improved significantly in recent decades and almost all of the UK meets EU air quality limits for all pollutants,’ which we do not think is an adequate response.

The Secretary of State  must produce plans to ensure compliance in 16 regions and cities – including London- as soon as possible “.

Now ClientEarth are awaiting for the ultimate decision of the UK Supreme Court and eventually the response from the Court of Justice of the European Union, while no official comment from Defra was released.

According to recent reports, London is not the most polluted capital in Europe but remains one of the cities where air quality is considered an emergency.  In 2011, a overview by Soot Free Cities that ranked major cities in Europe was based on the measures taken by local authorities to improve air quality  and the overall emission reduction success.  London came 11th out of 17.

According to the latest EEA report, the UK is among the european countries closer to reach the Gothemberg targets in PM10 emissions and NO2 emission in the country decreased 15/20 % between 1990 and 2010.

However still much work is to be done and the final decision of the Supreme Court followed by the response of Court of Justice of EU might really start a new process of plans to improve air quality in UK.

Maria Arnold said: “We need a mixture of national and local action. The Mayor of London could and should be doing a lot more to address the problem of air pollution but ultimately the UK government need to show far more leadership in order to support and drive local action.”

 

Pictures: Wikicommons

The Greater London and air pollution: what are the authorities doing?

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London City Hall is focused on tackling air pollution after a motion was proposed to mayor Boris Jonson on June 4 by the Green Party, to cut down on nitrogen dioxide emissions caused by traffic.

The motion was passed by Labour and Liberal Democratic parties, after the Supreme Court ruled in May that the UK is failing in its environmental policy and urgent measures needed to be taken.

London is expected to achieve compliance in its emissions by 2025 meeting the target imposed by the European Union, and the motion aims to be the first step in effective change.

 

Jenny Jones, who proposed the motion, said:

“London has a big issue with nitrogen dioxide and we proposed three measures that the mayor should take to takle this.

“London is expected to achieve compliance by 2025  but it is a very long time, it’s 12 years away and people will be affected in the mean time by bad air quality. We need to do much more. We need to reach annual targets to be able  to do something in the next 4 or 5 years.”

 

In 2010 the Greater London Authority published a paper about the mayor’s strategy to clean up the air in London. The paper found that pollution from traffic was one of the main concerns of Londoners and reported the ever-present issue of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the city.

Richard Tracey, member of the Transport Committee for the Conservatives at the London Assembly, said:

“We all support a campaign to cut down air pollution as far as we possibly can. The mayor has been doing what he can to reduce the level of pollution. He has introduced low emission zones, he promoted new form of hybrid buses where the level of diesel use is very low.

“Another problem is that London has 32 boroughs and the mayor does not have control on all of them he can just try to work together to improve the situation.”

 

Cattura7 Munrad Qureshi, chair of the environment committee at London Assembly, said:

“The measures taken so far haven’t worked at all and air pollution levels in London are still very worrying.

“I understand that the mayor has no power to impose policy to the boroughs but he can do things overall and cooperate with them to find a solution and takle this issue, and this has not happened for several years now.”

Cattura6Stephen Knight, chair of Economy committee, commented:

“Diesel vehicles are the main problem in London and the main source for NO2  and PM10 and the mayor wants to suspend the next phase of the low emission zones with the excuse that implementing it would be too expensive for businesses. I am afraid that the mayor is pandering to those business interests as opposed to prioritising clean air.”

 

 

 

Main picture: Cristina odero

Citizen science: a new European association to fight air pollution

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An association to involve European citizens in monitoring air quality across Europe has been launched at the EU Green Week on air pollution in Brussels.

The Green Week Conference 2013 focused on air quality and on June 6 the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) was launched to encourage people to collect data about pollution levels all over Europe.

Members of the association – which will be based in London and lead by Dr Linda Davies of Imperial College London – will  be representatives from 15 member states and the main target is to engage about 5 million people across the EU over the next 4 years.

Dr Davies said: “Last year we looked at what was happening with citizen science at the european level and there were some small projects going on but there was no body bringing practitioners together.

“With so much interest in this emergent field we talked to the European Environment Agency about bringing together representatives from interested countries and the idea for the association came out”.

Dr Davies is the director of OPAL (Open Air Laboratories), a citizen science project started in 2007 which involved thousands of people collecting data about the environment from around England. OPAL’s surveys provided at the Green Week showed how citizens’ contribution has played a key role in helping researchers understand what kind of consequences pollution has had so far on climate and nature.

“Because of the results we achieved in England with citizen science it was agreed  that our country would be the ideal body to take the lead and set up the association,” said Dr Davies. “We want this to be a long term project and funding from many different routes like sponsorships and donations and we hope all the member states will come on board.”

Pat Wolseley, lichen expert at the Natural History Museum Science Group in London, said: “At the Green Week we showed how these surveys in England were useful to collect data and gather information about environment and pollution. If we unite people across europe and involve them in research it could turn out to be an impressive and extremely useful set of data.”

Would you become a “citizen scientist”?

Feature image: Wikicommons