Blog 8: London air pollution at record high

Air pollution levels in London have recently reached record highs due to a combination of traffic fumes, relatively still weather and an influx of dirty air from the north of England and northern France. These conditions have been widespread over most of the country. Health advice from the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that adults and children with lung problems, adults with heart problems and all older people should not do any "strenuous physical activity" while pollution is at the recorded levels. The general population is advised to reduce exercise too. Official monitoring stations in the capital show that particles, nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants have reached levels not recorded since strict new measurements were implemented in 2008. These measurements started the monitoring of smaller particles called PM2.5s, which are able to enter the bloodstream more easily and cause more respiratory damage than larger particles, such as PM10s. The government seems to only be concerned with limited areas, but they say it’s being dealt with by the air quality plans, which set out all the important work being done at national, regional and local levels to make sure EU limits are met. According to Gary Fuller, senior lecturer in air quality measurement at King's College London, dirty air that has been recirculated from Europe and the north of England has a lot to do with the problem, along with a lack of wind. The pollution from cars and trucks are not blowing away these days. On top of this, the air over England today was in northern France yesterday and in northern England on Tuesday where it picked up a lot of air pollution from coal burning industries, domestic heating and traffic. These high levels of pollution are worrying many people with the upcoming olympics to be held in London in 2012. In the past the public has been warned about these higher pollution days. But due to upcoming mayoral elections, the mayor of London has kept five smog episodes in a row quiet as to avoid the air pollution issue. Some think that the mayors disregard for the environment over his re-election is the largest health fraud for this generation. He would rather suppress pollution in front of official air quality monitoring stations than save lives. 

There are many articles that focus on increasing pollution in developing countries but not vey many on more modern developed countries. The article talks about many different factors at play over this one pollution issue. The impact that the increasing fine particulates have on healthcare has a huge impact on society. From increasing healthcare costs to loss of productivity in the workplace. The short term and long term ramifications could make healthcare even more expensive and pricing out many people who once could afford it. It would become a system more for the elite classes and be unattainable to most. It’s also interesting to see that even the most progressive countries with lots of restrictions and forward thinking on pollution can still have problems of not meeting standards. This shows that pollution from other countries can have direct impacts on countries other than there own. I can’t see any positive effects it might have, only negative. Pollution is truly a global issue. Even if you lived in a country with no harmful emissions being released, concern about other countries would still be a huge issue. France’s dirty polluted air circulates north over England. The air mass brings all of Frances pollution and that of the countries the air was before France. The laws and regulations of all these other countries have a direct effect on just one small country in the North Atlantic. The political ramifications can be very large as well. From country to country and within a single country. With this story the Mayor was trying to cover up the latest news on how bad the pollution had been. He is afraid that someone could use it against him in his campaign. If were ever going to do anything real about changing our bad habits as a world we need to start with people like him. People who have an agenda that destroys the environment need to be taken out of office. Especially those that deceive the public. We won’t start seeing any real change until people like that are taken out of office. The elected officials should be held more accountable for taking care of us and the world from pollution threats. What these people are allowing to occur on the planet is crazy. They should all be charged with crimes against nature and humanity. There have been a lot of green movements in the past and will continue in the future, maybe one day it will catch on to the mainstream. Since a lot of the pollution is coming from cars and trucks, perhaps the best approach is to start moving away from the oil based world that we are now. City’s like London should become more bicycle and pedestrian oriented. This would not only reduce fine particulate emissions but also obesity, operational costs of cars, city congestion, healthcare costs, and the list goes on and on. People would enjoy the city’s more being outside and immersed in their surroundings.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/15/london-air-pollution-record-high