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.’