Air pollution

[juliet]

I've been thinking about air pollution a lot lately. Tower Bridge is shut for Not Falling Down Works, and the resultant tailbacks across South London seem to be making the air significantly worse than usual. Anecdotally, as I walk down to the Jamaica Road*, the air starts tasting weird and my throat starts feeling weird.** The onset of this (I've lived in this area nearly 15 years and I don't usually have problems) precisely matched up to when the bridge shut. It would be hard to argue that there's not going to be more pollution: same number of journeys, give or take, all taking longer so generating more airborne crap. Other S Londoners of my acquaintance have noticed the same; an asthmatic friend is particularly struggling.

But are there figures? Not really: annoyingly, there's no roadside monitoring station anywhere near here, although in 2015 most of the nearby stations to me exceeded the Air Quality Strategy objectives, and it's looking the same already for 2016 even before Exciting Tailback Autumn really got going. This street-by-street map looks more useful but is a "now-cast" only (right now, at nearly 7pm on a Saturday, which shouldn't be super busy, it's at the high end of 'low' on Jamaica Rd; the notes state that 'low' levels of pollution may in fact be higher than is good for your health). I will come back to it on Monday morning. Without a very close monitoring station I do wonder how accurate this is, but looking at the nearish ones would still be informative.

Hopefully this particular batch of badness will improve in December when the bridge reopens. But London's air quality is pretty horrible at the best of times. Checking my postcode on the 'annual levels of exposure' map (data from 2013) they give rates for four pollutants:

• NO2: my house high end of 'passes' range (37 microgrammes/m³); Jamaica Road well into 'fails' (~67 mcg/m³).


• Ozone: my house 40 mcg/m³; Jamaica Road a bit lower as apparently ozone reacts with other pollutants so is lower close to busy roads.


• PM10: my house passes at 25 mcg/m³; Jamaica Road not quite up to the 'fails' range at 31 mcg/m³.


• PM2.5: my house passes at 15 mcg/m³; Jamaica Road higher but also passes at 19 mcg/m³.

This does not fill me with confidence for my respiratory health (and all the other consequences of breathing in lots of pollution).

Short of moving***, I'm now wondering if there's much I can do about this on my own behalf. (I have already commented on the current London Clean Air study, and have contributed to various similar campaigns over the years to try to fix the actual problem.) Some years ago I tried a facemask for cycling but as the Guardian discovered more recently, these are basically very uncomfortable. It's also worth knowing that the health benefits of cycling outweigh the pollution risks. So whilst a mask might make the air less icky to breathe, it makes walking or cycling around the place more unpleasant in other ways.

In terms of long-term health consequences, the main suggestion from the London Air people is "avoid busy roads" as levels drop rapidly away from them (as seen with my house vs the Jamaica Rd). That's mostly doable. There's some evidence that consuming more antioxidants (e.g. lots of vitamin C) can help protect against the long-term health consequences; I've also seen "more omega-3 fatty acids" suggested (flax oil, hemp oil****). Won't actually stop me coughing, but as "more vitamin C, more omega-3" is a pretty risk-free dietary change, probably worth doing.

The best solution though is probably for Sadiq Khan to get on with making the air actually less vile. I believe the current plan has various aims for 2020. Here's hoping.

* One of the major east-west arteries south of the river; in particular it leads to the Rotherhithe Tunnel, which is dealing with a lot of the redirected Tower Bridge traffic. Three minutes walk from my house.
** I'm also getting headaches again and sleeping badly but these might be related to one another and not to the unpleasant air.
*** Though basically to get all that much better than here I would have to move right out of London, not just a bit further out.
**** Or fish oil for non-vegans.

Comments

[barakta]

Air pollution in Brum is pretty crappy although I haven't bothered doing the research.

I did once talk to a student at an open day who had cystic fibrosis and he mentioned that his consultant had talked about things which would prolong his life expectancy but he hadn't correlated that to choosing where to live with factors like air quality. It was a good discussion and I think he was surprised I wasn't trying to sell our uni at all costs, but was very clear much of the advice I gave was true of all of England...

Hope you can mitigate the effects on an individual level as much as possible and that Khan really does do something for London's air quality soon!

[juliet]

I haven't directly compared London with non-London UK cities. I would expect to see similar values if not *quite* as bad (London is among the worst places in the EU never mind the UK), though. If I was really choosing to move for air quality reasons then I would probably want to move properly out into actual country. Which has other disadvantages.

[rydra_wong]

Tangential side note: there are also algae-derived Omega-3 supplements for vegans which I hear are rather good (hemp has ALA, which is a precursor to EPA and DHA, but dependent on how well your body does or doesn't convert it).

[juliet]

Thank you! I will look into that.

[sfred]

I definitely notice the difference between London-generally and not-London (mostly Sheffield). I hope London air improves soon and you find coping strategies in the meantime.

[juliet]

Every time I go out of London I notice it when I come back :/ those are the times when I am most inclined to wish that moving was a realistic option!

[hairyears]

I notice the improvement in my breathing when I'm out of London; and my continuing deterioration into not-so-mild asthma while I'm still in London.

I know very well that I am not alone in this.

Both K and I need to get out of Zone 3: we're both using the using the Plume Labs app to look for better air quality - right now, suburban Croydon's the best bet - but really, leaving London's the future.

As my industry is moving to Frankfurt and Paris, this may not be a matter of choice.

I do not see any prospect of London's air quality improving and I note that there has been no enforcement effort whatsoever against the *known* issues of regulatory non-compliance by Volkswagen diesels.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I noticed allergy-type symptoms on Tuesday evening, after visiting the Tower and walking across Tower Bridge to London Bridge after. I live 100 yards from the A23, where acvidents and air quality are both concerns.

When i worked for Defra (until Jan this year), air quality was becoming the no.1 priority, people hijacked to work on it from all over. EU infractions ftw. Banning lorries is going to be needed - getting Stuff to central London and across the SE will get even more expensive (currently transport time is a disproportionate cost, severely affecting the economy).

[juliet]

Thing I am worrying about a bit atm -- likelihood of UK rescinding EU air quality legislation once we are out. Which would make, say, Heathrow expansion possible, at some fairly obvious costs.

I would very much like to see lorries banned, even at the cost of those knock-on effects. (Return the canals? more train transport?) Although sorting out final-mile delivery might be helpful too. Surely it is worse to have half a dozen different companies all doing much the same rounds in half a dozen different vans?

[holoaddict.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to say (also as a resident of the same town you live in) that the majority are comfortable and apathetic.

Fresh air is now a preserve of the countryside. The fight should never be given up however perhaps there are new ways of appealing to the populous. Unless someone feels the pain or feels it's directly affecting them...I'm not sure how you get other people on board?

[lilysea]

I wonder if you might be interested in a resuable cloth facemask that filters out fine particles?

It comes in plain black, plain green, plain burgundy, and lots of pretty, non-medical patterns like space invaders; Islamic geometric art; and florals.

It's not a complete solution, but it does help a medium amount. (I've been using it recently for wood smoke haze, which has been really bad lately.)

https://www.vogmask.com/collections/all