"Air pollution on streets is poisoning 2.6m schoolchildren": major new campaign by the Times
Terrific to see that the Times is launching a major campaign over the problem of atmospheric pollution,
particularly in schools. The article(s) are behind the pay wall, so I’ll post
excerpts from them here, but the full articles are well worth reading – which
you can do at the library, for example.
“Millions of children attend schools in Britain with
dangerous levels of air pollution, an investigation by The Times has found.
Days after the High Court ordered a new inquest into the
death of a London girl whose
mother claims she was killed by exhaust fumes from clogged roads, it can be revealed that about 6,500 schools educating 2.6 million children are in areas where fine particles in the air exceed the World Health Organisation recommended limit of 10mcg per cubic metre.
Fine particles, known as PM2.5, are the most dangerous
form of air pollution because their microscopic size allows them to penetrate
deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
Every school in London is over the WHO limit. Some 234
schools in Birmingham exceed it, as well as more than 100 in large cities like
Leicester and Nottingham.
The total includes 3,900
nursery and primary schools, where the younger children are most vulnerable to
air pollution because their lungs are developing and their relative size means
they are closer to vehicle exhaust emissions.
The Times is launching
a campaign for a
new Clean Air Act, which would give everyone the right to be
protected from toxic air that contributes to 40,000 deaths a year and particularly threatens the young, the elderly and people with lung conditions. Our coverage includes an interactive
search tool for parents, allowing them to check the level of particulates that children in London are subjected to at school.
The government claimed to be
tackling air pollution under a clean air strategy published in January, but
analysis of official projections reveals that almost 4,700 schools with 1.9
million pupils will still be over the limit by 2030.
The strategy included a target of
halving the number of people living in areas above the WHO limit by 2025 but
did not give the baseline for the target and did not set a clear plan for
achieving it.
Close inspection of government
projections on air quality by The Times shows that, despite gradual
improvements in recent years, more than nine million people will still be
living in areas above the limit in six years from now.
Michael Gove, the environment
secretary, also promised in January to set “a new, ambitious, long-term target
to reduce people’s exposure to PM2.5” and to “publish evidence early in 2019 to
examine what action would be needed” to meet the WHO limit. He has yet to
publish either the target or the evidence.”
Here’s a link in case you can access the paper online:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/air-pollution-on-streets-is-poisoning-2-6m-schoolchildren-xgcrzmlzk
And the paper is also advocating a Manifesto for Change, consisting of
five aims:
1. A new Clean Air Act to confer a legal right to unpolluted air
for everyone in the UK.
2. Ban sales of new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 and reverse
cut to green car grants
3.
Temporary traffic bans outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times
4. The extension of pre-2016 diesel and
pre-2006 petrol pay zones to other cities
5. Pollution monitors in every postcode
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/campaign-for-change-our-manifesto-to-tackle-air-pollution-2m82vsvs6
Perhaps now people will begin to take the problem of our polluted air
more seriously.
Richard Carter ● 2743d7 Comments