AQN Magazine - Issue 12 - December 2021

Issue 12

December 2021

airqualitynews.com

The 2021 roundup issue

Air Quality News reports from COP26

THE POLLUTION PANDEMIC LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN

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Editorial Comment and Contacts

Welcome to Air Quality News magazine Contacts Publisher: David Harrison d.harrison@spacehouse.co.uk 01625 614 000 Group Editor: Pippa Neill pippa@airqualitynews.com 01625 666 396 Business Development Manager: Jason Coward jason@spacehouse.co.uk 07889 212414 Finance Manager: Jenny Leach jenny@spacehouse.co.uk 01625 614 000 Administration: Jenny Odgen admin@spacehouse.co.uk 01625 614 000 Subscriptions: Andrew Harrison subscriptions@airqualitynews.com 01625 614 000 Published 6 times a year Annual Subscription - £19.95 +VAT

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It is hard to believe that we’re coming to the end of another year: with lockdowns, new variants, and a bit of ‘normality’ in between, it has been a bewildering and busy 12 months.

In this month’s magazine, we have spent a lot of time reflecting on the past year - I have looked at what the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us about air pollution. From the drastic reduction in air pollution during the March 2020 lockdown, to more recent findings that air pollution may be exacerbating the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Whichever way you look at it, it is clear that Covid-19 has really highlighted the importance of good air quality.

Elsewhere in the magazine, reporter Chloe Coules reflects on the outcomes of COP26. There is no doubt that environmental issues have risen to the forefront of just about any conversation in the past 12 months, but health is still often missing from the agenda. It is now widely understood that the climate crisis is a health crisis, with the World Health Organization (WHO) expecting climate change to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths a year between 2030 and 2050. Yet despite this, health was still largely missing from the COP26 agenda.

Another seismic shift in the UK air quality world was the passing of the Environment Act in November 2021. The Environment Act was presented as a way for the UK to regain control over our environmental issues at home, but in the wake of the infamous ‘sewage gate,’ this seems a long way off. Law firm Squire Patton Boggs outlines what the Environment Act has actually achieved for air quality, and in an interview elsewhere in the edition, Baroness Finlay details why she thinks the Commons failed to uphold the key requests from the Lords.

Significant progress has been made in the past 12 months and this edition of the magazine reflects the breadth of activity in air quality. But it has also never been clearer that we still have a long way to go until we reach a state of clean air for all.

We look forward to continuing this conversation next year and plan to continue breaking, and sharing the news in 2022 and beyond.

Pippa Neill, editor.

Tel: 07922 420984 pippa@airqualitynews.com All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Printed on FSC certified paper stock, using vegetable oil inks.

Fulfilment and distribution using 100% recycled envelopes.

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Contents

Features Contents Page 6-8: News

Page 10-12: Feature Page 6-8 News: London’s ULEZ led to just a small air quality improvement

Page 22-24 Feature: Health at COP26: meaningful progress or watered down promises?

Page 14-16: Feature

Page 18-20: Feature

Page 22-24: Feature

Page 10-12 Feature: Page 26-27 The Big Interview: The Pollution Pandemic - Lessons from Lockdown Air Quality News talks to Baroness Finlay

Page 26-27: The Big Interview

Page 28-29: Local Government News

Page 32-33: Local Government Interviews

Page 14-16 Feature: Let’s clear the air about COP26: It failed to protect our lung health...

Page 28-29 Local Government News: New World Health Organization Guidelines time to act

Page 34-35: Legal

Page 36: Marketplace

Page 18-20 Feature: In 2021, the Air Quality News team was thrilled to return to the conference world, where we successfully hosted two sell-out conferences

Page 32-33 Local Government Interview: The need to integrate climate change and air quality

Thanks to our contributors: British Lung Foundation, Stephen Cirell, Squire Patton Boggs UK100, and Vortex,

Partners

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in brief Carbon tax should fund free public transport, say researchers The research team examined household expenditure data on home energy and motor fuel from 275,614 households across 27 European countries.

They then examined the impact of introducing two different compensation strategies to mitigate the impact of new carbon taxes on low-income households.

Carbon taxes on home energy and motor fuel often place a greater burden on low-income households because the same tax rate is applied to every taxpayer, regardless of income. The researchers found that giving cashback through tax rebates, without bringing in additional low carbon investments such as renewable electricity or public transport, would result in only small reductions in home energy and motor fuel emissions.

Commuters exposed to ‘extreme air pollution’ on train Westminster, Birmingham and Oxfordshire County Council have written to Chris Heaton-Harris, a transport minister, and Edward Argar, a health minister, requesting that Chiltern Railways be asked to switch to alternative fuels to cut emissions.

According to an air quality monitoring station on Boston Place, outside Marylebone Station, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels peaked at 81 µg m-3. The World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline level is 10 µg m-3.

Particulate matter (PM2.5) peaked at 40 µg m-3, where the WHO’s guideline level is just 5 µg m-3.

Ozone pollution in India increased during lockdown To get a clearer picture of air pollution in India, researchers at the University of York looked at nitrogen oxide (NOx), particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) pollution.

They used hourly data from air quality monitoring stations and compared this data to the same dates from the previous three years to evaluate changes due to lockdown.

When taking observational data into account, the researchers found that NOx and PM2.5 fell up to 57% and 75% respectively.

But when meteorology was factored in, those percentages fell to less than 8% for PM2.5 and between 5 and 30% in both cities, while O3 increased.

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Delhi records record-high air pollution November saw record levels of air pollution in Delhi, India.

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he daily average particulate matter (PM2.5) measurement was 410.5ug/m3, according to data analysed by Air Quality News from the RealTime Air Quality Index in Pusa, Delhi.

Anything over 300ug/m3 is considered hazardous, meaning everyone may experience more serious health effects Experts have attributed these record pollution levels to the

shifting of the stubble burning period by around a week due to a prolonged monsoon season and the use of fireworks during Diwali.

As a result of the air pollution, schools and colleges closed for over a week, government offices were asked to operate from home and private businesses were advised to work-from-home as much as possible.

The government also banned

the use of diesel trucks for non-essential goods and shut down five coal power stations on Delhi’s outskirts.

The Delhi government also hired an extra 700 CNG buses to encourage people to use public transport. And a ban on construction has been reimposed to curb dust, a major source of pollution.

Dipankar Saha, former head of the CPCB’s air laboratory told Outlook India: ‘The emission sources for any defined area more or less remain the same throughout the year.

‘However, the concentration varies with the season.

November being the transition phase, the air quality in northern India is always problematic because of lowering of the atmospheric boundary layer, wind speed, temperature and local action plan’s implementation.’

Portsmouth CAZ is now live The Portsmouth CAZ is a class B zone meaning that buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and heavy goods vehicles that do not meet the euro 6 or euro 4 standards will be charged to enter the zone.

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rivers of ‘noncompliant’ vehicles will be charged £10 a day to drive through the zone, and coaches and heavy goods vehicles will pay £50 a day.

There are some specific vehicle exemptions, including for emergency service and military vehicles. You can check if you’ll be charged on the government webpage: https://www.gov.uk/ clean-air-zones Drivers of private vans, cars and motorcycles will not be charged, no matter how old the vehicle is.

Last Friday, the air quality improvement team held an Air Quality Improvement Showcase, attended by representatives from First Bus, Stagecoach and Pedal Portsmouth.

Cllr Dave Ashmore, Cabinet

Member for Community Safety & Environment, said: ‘Today is the day the clean air zone launches, but we should be speaking about air quality every day. There are so many ways we can all make a difference to the air quality in our city. It might be using public transport more, ditching the second car and joining a car club, making your next vehicle electric, or walking,

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catching the bus or renting an e-scooter for your next short journey.

‘As a council we’re working on creating the best possible conditions for these changes, from installing on-street electric car charging points and bicycle parking to extending the rental e-scooter trial and prioritising walking and cycling routes for residents.’

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London’s ULEZ led to just a small air quality improvement Researchers at Imperial College London used publically available data to measure changes in pollution in the twelve-week period from February 2019, before the ULEZ was introduced to May 2019, after it had been implemented.

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hey found that compared to the overall decrease in London’s air pollution levels, the ULEZ caused only small improvements in air quality in the weeks following its start date: an average reduction of less than 3% for nitrogen dioxide and insignificant effects on ozone and particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations.

They also found that the biggest improvements in air quality in London in fact took place before the ULEZ was introduced in 2019.

They detected changes in levels of nitrogen dioxide and

ozone at 70% and 24% of the monitoring sites around the time that the ULEZ was introduced, respectively.

The researchers say their findings highlight that ULEZs are not a silver bullet and that sustained improvements in air pollution require multiple measures.

Corresponding author Dr Marc Stettler said: ‘Cities considering air pollution policies should not expect ULEZs alone to fix the issue as they contribute only marginally to cleaner air. This is

especially the case for pollutants that might originate elsewhere and be blown by winds into the city, such as particulate matter and ozone.

‘Our research suggests that a ULEZ on its own is not an effective strategy to improve air quality – the case of London shows us that it works best when combined with a broader set of policies that reduce emissions across sectors like bus and taxi retrofitting, support for active and public transport, and other policies on polluting vehicles.’

UN acknowledges children’s right to clean air Over 29,000 children across the world have called on the Committee of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to acknowledge their right to clean air, through the Freedom to Breathe campaign.

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he vice-chair of the Committee today acknowledged the right of children to clean air and confirmed it will be elevated within the UNCRC through the forthcoming General Comment no.26. The vice-chair, Philip D Jaffé, agreed that we need an “air quality revolution”, but stressed that it would take decades to change the Convention, adding that the Committee will support the campaign by including the right to clean air in the upcoming general comment.

The campaign was run by Blueair and a coalition of NGOs, with 62 civil society organisations, academics and businesses supporting the children’s call in a letter to the Committee, including

UNICEF UK, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Unilever.

Sara Alsén, chief purpose officer at Blueair, said: ‘Blueair was founded on the belief that business should be a force for good in society. For the last 25 years, we have been fighting for every child’s right to breathe clean air. I’m so proud that, today, the UN acknowledged our fight and

recognized that clean air, just like clean water, should be the right of every child.’

The campaign has now collected 29,674 calls from children for clean air, with the support of their teachers through an education programme that taught children about the importance of clean air and how they can take action.

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in briefin brief Air pollution exposure associated with higher risk of developing Covid-19 The study included over 9,000 participants among which there were 481 confirmed cases.

For the total study population, an association was found between higher exposure to nitrogen oxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5) and covid-19 symptoms, particularly for severe cases that ended in the hospital or in intensive care. The association with PM2.5 was stronger for men over 60 years of age and people living in socioeconomically deprived areas.

New homes and buildings will have to install EV chargers This announcement comes as the Prime Minister addresses the CBI annual conference. The government expects that thanks to these regulations, up to 145,000 extra charge points will be installed across England each year.

With the majority of charging happening at home, this will mean people can buy new properties already ready for an EV. As well as new homes and nonresidential buildings, undergoing large scale renovations which leaves them with over 10 parking spaces will also be required to install EV charge points.

Air pollution at ports increased during the pandemic, study finds The findings serve as a stark contrast to findings from the NASA Earth Observatory which found that the freeze in industrial processes in the pandemic resulted in generally lower air pollution.

In Singapore, the researchers found that emissions were modelled to have more than doubled (123%) during the pandemic period.

They increased twofold in Los Angeles (100%) and over a quarter (27%) in Hamburg, Germany.

Container ships and dry bulk carriers marked the sharpest increase of all total emissions, seeing an average increase of 94% and 142% respectively 7

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in brief The UK must expand EV recycling to avoid supply risks, says report Looking at the projected use of lithium, cobalt, silver and rare earth elements by the UK’s low carbon industries, the report found that the UK will easily exceed its per capita share of critical raw material reserves by 2050.

China currently controls 60% of global mine production and 40% of rare earth metal reserves, the authors warn that there are significant supply chain risks to UK businesses.

However, the UK can limit the threat of supply risks if it builds up its domestic recycling of valuable materials and cuts energy use, reducing the pressure on technology growth.

New ventilation fund will help prevent the spread of Covid Small and medium-sized businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms will be able to claim back costs of up to £2,500 to undertake work such as the installation of carbon dioxide monitors and remedial improvement work to windows and vents.

Businesses will be able to fill in a self-assessment form to receive advice on improving their current ventilation systems and identify if they are eligible for financial support from their local authority.

Effective ventilation is a key public health measure to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading and is of increasing importance during autumn and winter as people spend more time indoors.

Study will investigate whether air cleaners reduce Covid-19 in schools The study is investigating two different approaches to cleaning the air with the use of portable or wallmounted devices.

One is based on filtering the air by passing it through a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter which captures most airborne viruses.

The second approach involves cycling the air through an enclosed unit where it is exposed to ultraviolet light which inactivates microorganisms including viruses.

The two technologies have been widely used in other settings and are regarded as safe.

Based on the outcome of modelling, the scientists involved have said they’re confident the technologies will reduce the risk of Covid-19 being spread through aerosol transmission.

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Air pollution linked to stroke admissions There is a correlation between air pollution and stroke admissions in Ireland, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

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r Colm Byrne, from the Irish Doctors for the Environment, carried out the research. He told the joint committee that air pollution from cars affects respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Byrne said: ‘Our research has demonstrated a correlation between traffic-produced air pollution and stroke admissions in this country.

‘This is in line with international studies that have demonstrated that there is no such thing as a safe level of air pollution, and recent changes to WHO guidelines have reflected this reality.

‘There are, however, other effects of cars to human health than just tailpipe emissions. All cars, including electric-propelled cars, produced particulate matter

from other sources such as tyre wear and brake pads.’

Dr Bryne also said that noise pollution is increasingly being recognised as a major health issue, with cardiovascular disease, stroke, and dementia among others, associated with noise pollution.

Damien O Tuama, the national cycling coordinator at Cyclist.ie, told the Irish Examiner: ‘For e-bikes, it’s not just about decarbonising

transport, they’re very much at the heart of decongesting Irish towns and cities and villages, and really making the board more economically vibrant.

‘They improve the liveability of towns because more spaces opened up for business of the public space. Crucially, they improve public health through being active travel vehicles themselves, you only get the kick from the electric power when you pedal yourself.’

Failure to act has led to thousands of air pollution related deaths The UK Government could have avoided thousands of deaths in 2019 had it acted to reduce air pollution, according to new figures from the European Environment Agency.

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ccording to the analysis, in 2019 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was responsible for more than 33,000 deaths annually in the UK and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was responsible for 5,750 deaths.

The UK was in the top five European countries with the

most premature deaths resulting from both PM2.5 pollution and NO2 pollution.

Half of these deaths from PM2.5 could have been avoided if the UK had followed the latest recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The country’s new Environment Act has just been

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passed but campaigners have warned that the UK has missed an opportunity to follow WHO guidelines for PM2.5.

Andrea Lee, clean air campaign manager at ClientEarth said: ‘The world’s leading experts have made it clear that there is no level of air pollution that’s safe to breathe – and this is why our government must be doing all it can to keep our exposure as low as possible.

‘That starts with reflecting the best possible science in the law. The current legal limits for air pollution just don’t cut it.

We need to see the WHO guidelines reflected in legislation as soon as possible, to protect us and our children.

The air we breathe today shapes our lives forever.”

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The Pollution Pandemic - Lessons from In this year’s December Magazine, Editor Pippa Neill reflects on what the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us about air pollution.

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hen the UK entered the very first national lockdown on 24 March 2020, Air Quality News was one of the first media outlets to report on the sudden change in air pollution.

After analysing data from the Department for Energy, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), we found that on the first day of lockdown air pollution had halved in some cities.

The biggest decrease was seen in Edinburgh where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations fell from 74µg/ m3 in 2019, to 28µg/m3 in 2020.

With the roads empty and the public breathing in clean air for the

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first time in a generation, the wider media soon picked up on these changes. Videos of dolphins in the canals of Venice and memes stating that ‘nature is healing’ went viral on social media. We all saw first-hand the clear connection between our own activities and pollution.

These changes didn’t just have a visual impact, but according to research published in June 2020 by the British Lung Foundation, during the first lockdown two million people with respiratory conditions such as asthma experienced reduced symptoms.

However, halting the economy for the sake of the environment is never going to be a viable solution and

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soon our air pollution levels returned to ‘normal.’ By July 2020, with the majority of the restrictions over, air pollution levels had more or less returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Health outcomes The sudden change in our environment wasn’t the only way that air pollution came to the forefront of our conversations. As researchers learned more about the virus, they quickly realised that exposure to air pollution may actually be connected to covid outcomes.

Historically, air pollution has largely been associated with ‘non-

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Professor Klea Katsouyanni who oversaw this review tells Air Quality News: ‘Having analysed all of this research, one thing is clear and that is that long-term exposure to air pollution makes people more susceptible to Covid-19 and actually changes the morbidity profile of the population.’

This finding is hardly surprising.

Scientists, doctors and campaigners have long been highlighting that air pollution is harming our respiratory health. With exposure to even socalled ‘safe levels’ of air pollution linked to the development of asthma, stunted lung growth, lung disease and COPD. When we are living through a respiratory pandemic with a virus that attacks our lungs, it is hardly surprising that decades of neglect over the quality of our air will come to the forefront.

According to a large study conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a small, single unit increase in people’s exposure to

real-terms with the unequal outcomes of Covid-19. According to the ONS, black male citizens are four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than their white male counterparts. This is reportedly due to many compounding socio-economic factors, from access to health and social care to living in more overcrowded households.

But one factor which cannot be ignored is air pollution. According to researchers at King's College London, black communities in London are disproportionately more likely to breathe in illegal levels of air pollution.

They found that Black, African and Caribbean people account for 15.3% of all Londoners exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels that breach EU limits, despite only accounting for 13.3% of the city’s population.

Professor Katsouyanni says: ‘Several of the studies we looked at show that people who have lower socioeconomic status or are from certain demographic groups are exposed to more air pollution, Covid-19 has highlighted this issue

particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution over the previous decade may increase the death rate from Covid-19 by up to 6%. A single unit increase in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is linked to a 2% increase in death rates.

Many academics have highlighted how these findings have shown up in

and brought it to the forefront, we must now use it to create action.’

Lockdown communicable’ diseases, meaning diseases that can’t be directly transmitted between people, such as lung disease. However, a key finding during the Covid-19 pandemic is that air pollution may also be linked to infectious diseases.

Given the nature and urgency of the situation, people started publishing research on non-peer reviewed websites. In the age of fake news and misinformation and with a plethora of research out there of varying types and quality, the Greater London Authority and Department for Transport commissioned researchers from Imperial College London to review the research.

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But why has it taken a pandemic to highlight this issue?

We have long known that air pollution is harming our health, with 11

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scientists highlighting for decades that exposure is linked to lung cancer, cardiovascular attacks and neurological issues.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) air pollution is responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths every single year. This is more than the deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Yet despite this, over the past few decades, action on air pollution has fallen by the way-side.

In a recent article in the London Review of Books, author David Wallace-Wells writes: ‘If the pandemic so terrified us that billions of us retreated into panicked cocoons for months, what can explain or justify our blindness and indifference towards ten million lives ended each year by repeated smog inhalation?

‘These numbers demand that we reorder our picture of the world we live in, recalculating the brutality of the present. It becomes plain that clean air and clean water and human health should be restored to the centre of the environmental crusade – rather than at the margins.’

Many campaigners are therefore calling for a covid-like response to 12

deal with the air pollution and the climate crisis.

The role of clean air to stop the spread

have responded to this study stating: ‘The results don’t change our advice about air purifiers, which is that you “shouldn’t rely on them.”’

Taking these lessons forward

As we have learned more about the Covid-19 virus, safety advice has changed dramatically. From mask wearing to hand washing it’s been a confusing time, but the UK government is now clear that good ventilation can play a key role in helping to prevent the spread. The government’s website now states: ‘Bringing fresh air into a room and removing older stale air that contains virus particles reduces the chance of spreading Covid-19. The more fresh air that is brought inside, the quicker any airborne virus will be removed from the room.’

This quest for clean indoor air has led many air purifier manufacturers to imply or claim that their machines can protect us from the virus. The biggest study into the matter so far was published by the Centre for Disease Control in the U.S. This suggested that portable Hepa air cleaners could reduce levels of virus aerosols indoors.

However, consumer champion Which?

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The ways in which air pollution is linked to Covid-19 are vast and complicated, but one thing is clear, if you look after the air we breathe - it will lead to better respiratory health, enabling the general population to be better able to cope as we continue to battle with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Katsouyanni concludes: ‘We have been saying for many years that pollution is an important public health issue, and if there is one positive outcome from the Covid-19 pandemic it’s that we can use this research to highlight and campaign for cleaner air.

‘We are now in a situation where we can clearly demonstrate the benefits of reducing air pollution in our cities and worldwide. We have to put this forward and tell the public and governments that air pollution is a public problem and improving it will be good for public health in every sense, including for infectious diseases.’

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Let’s clear the air about COP26: It failed to protect our lung health...

Sarah Woolnough, CEO of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, shares her take-aways from COP26, why air pollution is a big issue in Glasgow and what we need to do to clean up our toxic air across the UK.

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t COP26, whilst world leaders were committed to discussing ways to protect our future from climate change, they failed to address the largest environmental threat to human health we face today. Welcome commitments to “phase-down” coal, cut methane and end deforestation by 2030 grabbed the headlines, but what was missing was any commitment to improve the quality of the air we all breathe.

Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, supported

by Impact On Urban Health, spent two weeks at the conference launching a new campaign, Clear The Air. We spoke with hundreds of attendees and organisations about the link between air pollution and climate change, asking people to share their stories and take action to protect our health today, and ensure the next generation can breathe clean air tomorrow.

Toxic Glasgow Ironically, as leaders skirted around the impact of air pollution on public health and its contribution to climate change, everyone attending COP26 was exposed

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to dangerous levels of fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5). Glasgow, the home of COP26, is the fourth most polluted city in the UK outside of London, Manchester, and Birmingham. Furthermore, 81% of births across Scotland take place in localities with unsafe levels of PM2.5.

This amounts to over 40,000 births per year. Last year, 93% of all air pollution monitoring sites across Scotland, and 90% in Glasgow, registered levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) above the new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of 10 μg/m3 This includes the places where those who are most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, including pregnant women, children, the elderly, people with existing lung conditions and those on the lowest incomes, should feel safe. Over three quarters of care homes, seven in 10 schools and almost 80% of hospitals across Scotland are in areas surrounded by dangerously high air pollution.

It is therefore of little surprise that urban Scotland, particularly the areas around Glasgow itself, have the highest death rates from lung disease in Britain; and around 2,000 premature deaths are related to air pollution each year.

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Air pollution across the UK We see a similar picture across the UK, where air pollution is responsible for 36,000 deaths per year and has been linked to increased risk of lung disease, heart failure, strokes, dementia, and poor mental health. 75% of the country’s air quality report zones were breaching legal limits for NO2 last year, whilst 97% of the population live in areas where the levels of PM2.5 are above those recommended by the WHO. A national scandal This is a national scandal and no one is safe from the effects of toxic air.

At Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, we have a front row seat to the devastation caused to people’s lungs and health from breathing dirty air. There are more than five million people with Asthma in the UK, including 1.1 million children. Over half of these have told us that poor air quality is a trigger for their symptoms, whilst 60% of people with a lung condition have told us that they have been discouraged

from leaving the house due to high levels of pollution. And of course, we saw with the tragic death of Ella Adoo KissiDebrah, that exposure to dangerous levels of pollution can have fatal consequences, triggering life-threating asthma attacks and exacerbations.

A moral duty to level up our health If the government is serious about levelling up health inequalities across the country, it must begin by ensuring that everyone has clean air to breathe, no matter where they are born, live or play.

Our recent report, Clear The Air: Improving air quality to protect future generations and level up our communities, found that over 250,000 babies are born each year in heavily polluted areas. This means that one baby is born every two minutes into an area where its first breaths are toxic.

Meanwhile 85% of people living in areas with illegal levels of pollution make up the poorest 20% of the UK population. Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester rank among the top ten areas with the highest proportion of deprived neighbourhoods in England and all these

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cities have main roads which breach legal NO2 limits.

These are also the most ethnically diverse places in the country, meaning that toxic air is more likely to have a disproportionate impact on those who are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Delivering change We have the knowledge, the skills, and the technology to make huge strides towards clearing the air across the UK, we just need the political will.

That begins at the top. The government has a prime opportunity to set new clean air targets into law through its Environment Act. It has committed to setting out a new concentration target and exposure reduction target for PM2.5 before the end of October 2022. This commitment should be welcomed but it needs to be backed up by swift action to deliver a target that is ambitious and achievable.

We have long been calling for a new concentration target which reduces particulate matter to the annual levels set out in the 2005 WHO guidelines and is achieved by no later than 2030. Without targets, the government remains unaccountable.

There are also measures that we can take simultaneously to reduce pollution at the regional and local level. 80% of pollution at the roadside comes from transport, stemming from both exhaust fumes as well as tyre, brake and road abrasion. This means that one of the most effective 16

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interventions is to change the way we move around our towns and cities.

Whilst COP26 did see a pledge to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 from several countries and car manufacturers worldwide, this alone will not be enough to combat pollution at the roadside.

We need more people switching away from private cars to more sustainable modes of transport, such as public transport, walking and cycling, if we are to clean up our air.

Another major part of the battle to clean up our air is educating people – health professionals, politicians and residents alike – about the dangers of air pollution. That is why we are calling for air pollution exposure reduction to be included in all training for health care professionals, alongside a national healthcare campaign.

Clearing the air together As part of our Clear the Air campaign we will be empowering people whose lives are most impacted by air pollution up and down the country, to share their stories and have their voices heard about the improvements they want to see to air quality in their communities.

As for COP27, we hope to see air pollution and the impact climate change is having on human health, high on the agenda.

Find out more at www.cleartheair.org.uk

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In 2021, the Air Quality News team wa world, where we successfully hosted t Both conferences brought together local authorities, academics, policy makers and green sector leaders who all came together to hear presentations from our excellent line-up of speakers and to engage with our wide-range of air quality exhibitors.

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he first Northern Air Quality Conference was held in September at the iconic Midland Hotel, Manchester.

Chaired by Stephen Cirell, the host of the Environment Journal Podcast and advisory energy consultant, the day included presentations on the history of air pollution, the economic benefits of Clean Air Zones and the significant

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problem of indoor air pollution.

Highlights of the day included a presentation from Dr Gary Fuller, who looked back on the ‘Great Smog’ of the 1950s and asked the complicated question, has air pollution ever been this bad?

Despite the lack of any monitoring data making this question difficult to answer, Gary concluded that although

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air pollution may not be as bad, the total burden on humanity is much worse – with 40% of humanity currently living in continents where air pollution is the worst on the planet.

Next up to present was Joe Swift, senior advisor in the Public Health and Air Quality Team and Julian Watkins, a social scientist at the Environment Agency. Joe and Julian told the audience about their ongoing Air Quality Inequalities Project.

The project is a collaborative effort and aims to bring together the voices and lived experiences of over 200 individuals and 80 groups who have expertise in air quality and health inequalities. Their aim is to answer difficult questions such as ‘Can the job you do affect your exposure to air quality?’ or ‘Does where you live affect your health?’

We also heard from Cllr Sarah Warren, Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate and Sustainable Travel at Bath and North

Feature

as thrilled to return to the conference two sell-out conferences.

East Somerset Council.

Earlier this year, Bath became the first local authority outside of London to introduce a charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ). In her presentation, Sarah told the audience how Bath reached this milestone and explained the challenges and obstacles that the council had to overcome to reach where they are today.

Just two months later on November 11th, we regrouped with a new excellent line-up of speakers and a

different group of delegates for the National Air Quality Conference at Lords Cricket Ground, London.

This conference began with a presentation from Baroness Finlay, who we have also interviewed on page 26 of this magazine. In her presentation, titled ‘The Housing Trilemma,’ Finlay focused on the importance of clean indoor air and looked at why Covid-19 should bring health and air quality back into focus for housing policymakers.

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Feature

In the keynote presentation of the day, Sir Stephen Holgate joined the stage with a round of applause from the audience.

Sir Holgate is a Professor of Immunopharmacology and a respiratory physician at the University of Southampton. He is the founder of the DH Committee on the Medical

Effects of Air Pollutants, Chair of the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee, President of the British 20

Panel members included Elliot Treharne, Head of Air Quality at the Greater London Authority, Katie Nield, Clean Air Lawyer at ClientEarth, John Vinson, Commercial Director at VortexIOT and Campaigner and Clean Air Advocate Rosamund Kissi-Debrah.

Society of Allergy and is also a Special Advisor to the RCP on Air Quality.

In a very moving and powerful

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presentation, Stephen told the emotional story of how he helped Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, who was also sitting in the audience, prove that air pollution was responsible for her daughter’s death.

He presented graphic evidence on how Ella’s hospital episodes related to local pollution episodes near her home in London.

‘Ella’s bronchiolar tubes were damaged chemically by the air she was breathing. She was drowning, she was a canary in a coal mine.’

After lunch, Felicity Aston, MBE joined the audience live from her home in Iceland. Felicity is a polar scientist, author, arctic explorer and public speaker.

Felicity is also leading the BIG North Pole expedition, where an all-female team will be skiing to the North Pole to collect data on black carbon and microplastic pollution.

Spacehouse, the publishers of Air Quality News and Environment Journal are proud to be sponsoring this expedition. Follow the teams’ adventures and read all about their

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findings on www.EnvironmentJournal. online There is a real sense of urgency around this expedition with access to this part of the world quickly dwindling. Felicity presented detailed information on just how quickly this part of the world is changing and also provided an insight into how the data that we often take for granted but that is essential to inform our climate and pollution models and future predictions is collected.

The day concluded with a panel discussion, where the audience had the chance to engage with key stakeholders from the industry.

Panel members included Elliot Treharne, Head of Air Quality at the Greater London Authority, Katie Nield, Clean Air Lawyer at ClientEarth, John Vinson, Commercial Director at VortexIOT and Campaigner and Clean Air Advocate Rosamund Kissi-Debrah.

The panel was faced with some difficult questions, from their thoughts on domestic wood-burning to how they think local authorities can continue to

have an impact on air pollution with reduced powers and funding.

Overall both conferences were a resounding success, delegates, exhibitors and speakers all shared their positive feedback, with Vortex IoT stating: ‘We found the conversations at the Air quality News conference so valuable yesterday, what a great event!’

We look forward to continuing this

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work in 2022 and hope to continue elevating the air quality conversation to the forefront of all of our minds and bringing together sector leaders to push for change.

OUR CONFERENCE DATES FOR 2022

will be confirmed on the Air Quality News website shortly.

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Feature

Health at COP26: meaningful progress or watered down promises?

Air Quality News reporter Chloe Coules reflects on the role of health at COP26 and explores whether the health emergency of climate change is being taken seriously by world leaders.

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he climate emergency is already affecting a range of social and environmental factors that contribute to our quality of health, including how clean the air is, how safe the water is to drink, and whether there is sufficient food and shelter for our global population.

As a result of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) expects climate change to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths a year between 2030 and 2050, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and

22

heat stress. Going into COP26, as countries continued to fight ongoing waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and delegates arrived in Glasgow masked, sanitized and tested, discussions of health had never been more visible in modern society.

While there is no direct evidence of a link between climate change and Covid-19, research has linked many of the root causes of an increased risk of pandemics with the root causes of climate change, such as deforestation and unsustainable meat production, making tackling the health impacts

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of climate change more pressing than ever if we want to prevent future outbreaks.

The ongoing pandemic and increased awareness of health risks granted health a bigger platform at COP26 than had ever been seen at a UN climate conference, but did it do enough to deliver a sustainable and resilient future for healthcare?

Building resilient health systems For the first time, the health community had its own pavilion at

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a UN climate conference, with the World Health Organization showcasing the arguments for ambitious climate action to protect health across different sectors and issues.

Together with the UK government and other partners, WHO was able to establish the COP26 Health programme, an initiative to bring a stronger health focus and ambition to COP26.

As part of the programme, over 50 countries committed to building climate resilient and low carbon health systems. Many countries also committed to transforming their health systems to be more sustainable, with 14 countries pledging to reach net zero carbon emissions in their health systems by 2050.

Will Clark, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm, explains: ‘The headline success story was that the governments of over fifty countries around the world made commitments to developing climate-resilient health systems, with most also going further and committing to low-carbon or even net-zero health systems. Given the contribution of the healthcare sector to global emissions (4.4% of net total) and the health impacts of a changing climate (which are becoming increasingly clear) this is a major step forward.’

The event also saw the creation of the headline Glasgow Climate Pact, which saw nations recommit to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, alongside new commitments to reduce coal and revisit emission-cutting plans in a year.

However, some health industry experts criticized the pact for not going far enough to outline how the pledges will be delivered.

Dr Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, “welcomed” the pact’s strong language recommitting governments to limiting warming but argues that it lacks sufficient information about how countries will deliver on their promises in such a crucial area, with every tenth of a degree of warming important when it comes to protecting lives from devastating climate impacts.

She adds: ‘The health community came to COP26 with clear demands from 46 million health workers on

issues critical to protecting people’s health and social equity - yet COP26 has delivered on just a few of them.

‘Where progress was made it was incremental, when what was required was a great bound forward by governments.

People’s health and lives remain grievously in harm’s way from climate change - and the clock is still ticking to achieve the 1.5C target.

‘Coming out of this COP, governments cannot assume that they can now rest - they must instead push far beyond what is asked of them in the Glasgow Climate Pact in order to achieve what is required to protect human health from climate change.’

down after last-minute objections from China and India, leaving the final document calling for a “phase down” not “phase out”.

The last-minute softening of this language around coal was met with widespread disappointment from the health sector.

Will Clark tells Air Quality News: ‘It was disappointing that China and India insisted on a last-minute softening of language around phasing out of coal power and fossil fuel subsidies - not only does burning coal contribute to change, but pollution from coal combustion also has a significant impact on human health.

Just this week India shut five coal-

Watered down promises

fired plants in an effort to combat the appalling levels of air pollution being suffered by people in New Delhi.’

However, even a tiny shift away from coal use marks progress for air quality, according to Dr Jeni Miller.

‘While it seemed that COP26 was set to deliver the crucial commitment of governments to phase out coal and end fossil fuel subsidies, this language was progressively whittled away during the drafting process of the Glasgow statement - a shameful act, given that air pollution from burning fossil fuels kills millions of people per year, with coal the worst offender.

Ending coal use is key to protecting health, as burning the fossil fuels produces a range of toxic pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, leading to over 800,000 premature deaths a year globally and many millions more serious and minor illnesses according to End Coal.

Activists and health experts hoped that COP26 would see nations finally commit to cutting out coal. However, pledges to phase out its use in the Glasgow Climate Pact were watered

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Feature

‘It is notable - and reprehensible that even this weak language indicates progress, as it is the first time the need to phase out fossil fuels has ever been mentioned in a UNFCCC agreement.’

In addition, governments failed to deliver the $100bn USD per year of climate finance that had been promised last year to developing countries.

This is concerning as developing countries with weaker health infrastructure and more vulnerable people are likely to be hit with the brunt of the health impacts of climate change.

Dr Jeni Miller argues: ‘In vulnerable countries and communities, lives are being lost and people’s health is being harmed, now. Developed countries cannot just keep talking about finance for loss and damage and adaptation - they need to deliver the necessary resources.

This has got to be a major focus of COP27, which will be hosted by Egypt on behalf of the Africa region.’

Ultimately, it is unclear whether COP26 delivered sufficient action to 24

keep warming within 1.5 degrees, which will be crucial in preventing the worst health impacts.

Professor of Economics at the University of Roehampton and former Green MEP, Molly Scott Cato, explains the impact that small temperature increases can have on health.

‘Nations know they have to cut emissions deeper and faster. Yet despite a limited increase in ambition, the majority of countries have failed to strengthen the promises they made in Paris in 2015, leading well-respected Carbon Action Tracker, to put the world on track for a calamitous 2.4 degrees of warming.

‘While the difference between 1.5 and 2.4 might not seem like very much, it is the difference between a liveable climate and one where thousands die from heat shock in Europe and millions are faced with starvation in Africa due to drought.’

Taking health seriously In the wake of an entirely different

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public health emergency, it was good to see health on the agenda at COP26, even if only in the fringes.

However, Will Clark says health needs to play a bigger role in future conferences: ‘Given that climate change is now widely regarded as a spiralling public health emergency, we feel it could have had a much more prominent focus, particularly within the main negotiations.

We will be advocating for a health day in Egypt next year with other global health partners.’

Although health was discussed in a more meaningful way than at past UN climate conferences, it still did not get the level of attention that is needed to address the impacts of climate change on human life.

Climate change is already killing people. It’s not a health crisis of the future - it’s the most immediate threat to human life in the 21st century.

And yet, the heath industry is left questioning whether COP26 gave the issue of health the moment in the spotlight it deserved.

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The Big Interview

Air Quality News talks to Baroness Finlay Pippa Neill talks to Baroness Finlay, Crossbench Member of the House of Lords and Chair of the CO Research Trust.

Baroness Finlay is a Welsh Doctor, Professor of Palliative Medicine, a Crossbench Member of the House of Lords and Chair of the CO Research Trust, a charity dedicated to reducing and preventing deaths caused by carbon monoxide (CO).

Finlay played an influential role in the Environment Act, where despite rejections from the Commons, the House of Lords were calling for large scale reforms on environmental protection.

‘What I and others were calling for was a clear recognition that air pollution is damaging our health,’ she tells Air Quality News.

A key area where Baroness Finlay was calling for change was with the UK’s current monitoring network.

‘Air quality monitoring in the UK is grossly inadequate,’ says Finlay.

‘The problem is, the current system is based on sampling and so it has to be sampling at the right place and at the right time in order to generate an accurate picture of the air quality.

‘Unless you properly monitor air pollution, then you’re not going to know if you’ve got improvements or not.’

Baroness Finlay was also personally calling for schools to monitor and reduce air pollution.

‘It’s particularly concerning that some of the places with the most polluted air are places where children are growing up. We know that atmospheric pollution disproportionately affects children. It affects brain development, mental health and can even affect pregnant women through the placenta to then be handed on to the next generation.

26

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‘At the moment, there is talk about monitoring carbon dioxide in classrooms, but this doesn’t tell you anything about the concentrations of toxic air that is coming through the windows.’

However, like any politician, Baroness Finlay knows that if you want to make changes, you need to know how to pay for them.

‘It would cost money to install new and better monitors and they have to be maintained and the results analysed and financial considerations will always come into play ‘Do you put up tax in one area to pay for it? And if you do, which taxes do you put up? The government has to balance the books at the end of the day.’

But using economic reasons for a lack of inaction on air pollution has been criticised many times over.

"Air quality monitoring in the UK is grossly inadequate," A recent report published by the Clean Air Fund found that reducing pollution to World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended levels could benefit the UK economy by £1.6bn annually by reducing premature deaths, reducing sickness absence and improving productivity at work.

However, according to Baroness Finlay, governments are too focused on short-term investments, ‘investing in the future is not something that governments tend to be good at,’ she says.

The government has also come under scrutiny for not using the Environment Act to update the legal air quality

The Big Interview

is indoors or outdoors. Air pollutants are present in every home. However, there are large groups of people who are being put at greater risk due to the current housing policy approach.

This has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased requirements for people to remain at home,’ Finlay writes.

limits to comply with WHO guidelines.

‘The thing is the WHO guidelines will probably tighten up further and to be generous to the government, I would say that they actually want to see what the WHO settles to and then they will go after that level.

‘The other thing is, if you set a target which is attainable then you stand a chance of meeting it, but if you set a target which really stretches you then you know the media headline will be that you failed. I can see why a government would want to work towards an attainable target and then really tighten it up after that. There is logic to taking action in stages rather than in one fell swoop.’

With her work at the CO Research Trust, Baroness Finlay is also very involved in highlighting the importance of good indoor air quality.

In a recent article published in Air Quality News, she

The Building Safety Bill is still in the report stage, but so far, action to improve indoor air quality seems negligible.

‘The indoor air is seen as your private space, so I think there is a hesitancy by any party to legislate it.’

‘I think people also tend to think that pollution is only

was calling for the Building Safety Bill to recognise a healthy, affordable and sustainable indoor environment.

Baroness Finlay was calling for: • Advice to be targeted towards occupants of small flats (especially those adjacent to major roads) • Purposed provided ventilation (PPV) to be included in any refurbishment strategy • The continued promotion of advice to owner-occupiers and remind private/social landlords to perform regular boiler and gas cooker servicing to help reduce exposure.

• Education/promotion should continue to focus on behavioural changes such as smoking outdoors, using extractor fans during cooking and allowing for additional ventilation through window opening.

‘There are no ‘safe levels’ of air pollution, whether that

generated from outside sources and therefore if they're inside, they're not breathing in polluted air. But they're not thinking about sources indoors that may be providing pollution’ However, with one in eight households in Great Britain having no access to a private or shared garden, action to improve air quality has never been more important.

Despite the lack of action in the Environment Act, Baroness Finlay remains optimistic for the future of air quality, ‘We shouldn’t be passively fatalistic, we should say, look, actually we can do something about it if we can act now, we can reverse the trends.

‘The pandemic has helped many people to be aware of the nature around them and aware of how things can be better, we need to use that as momentum to push for action.’

"There are large groups of people who are being put at greater risk due to the current housing policy approach."

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27

Local Government News

Why we need local action to tackle our environmental issues UK100 explain why local authorities are best placed to tackle environmental issues.

L

ocal authorities across the country have shown bold leadership by setting Net Zero targets that are decades ahead of the national legislation, but sustained delivery can only happen if the Government lets go of powers and finances. Council’s have a crucial role in tackling climate change and improving air quality, as convenors and designers of place, with influence over local planning, transport, waste and housing. Local leaders are rooted in their communities and understand local needs and opportunities. This makes them uniquely positioned to deliver a place-based transition to Net Zero which engages and coordinates with local businesses, public institutions and residents and brings jobs and industries to their communities. Local authorities can have a strong influence over emissions, research shows one-third of all UK emissions are dependent on sectors influenced by local government policies or partnerships.

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“Many of the urgent changes and decisions needed have a strong local dimension. Decarbonising buildings, transport, waste and industry, cutting emissions from agriculture and storing more carbon through land use and forestry are dependent on delivery at a local level” - Lord Deben, Committee on Climate Change There is a growing consensus, even following COP26, that global declarations need to be backed up by local delivery. Committee on Climate Change regards local authority action as critical for meeting our climate targets, as local leaders have a key role in introducing the measures people need to make low-carbon choices, such as constructing cycle paths and bus lanes and increasing the number of bus routes and services to enable a proper choice when travelling around..

Ipsos Mori polling commissioned

by UK100 found that 40% of people believe that their local council is best

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placed to tackle climate change in their local area, compared to 30% believing it is the Government’s responsibility and 19% believing it is down to the individual. 62% of people surveyed believed there is a need for increased investment to enable safe walking and cycling, and 76% believe that the transition to a green economy offers opportunities for people who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

Addressing climate change and air pollution has many social and economic benefits for local communities.

Retrofitting social housing reduces fuel poverty, cleaner air improves people’s health and improving public transport networks increases the mobility of people without access to a car, improving access to work, friends and family.

The solutions to tackling climate change are largely the same ones required to improve air quality, including transitioning from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles, public

Local Government News

transport, walking and cycling. DEFRA Air Quality Expert Group’s analysis found that reaching Net Zero emissions would likely lead to a significant improvement in air quality.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to improve the health of their local population and air pollution is a public health emergency requiring urgent action. Toxic air is linked to one in every nineteen deaths in the U.K, including the death of children like Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah. Research has shown that air pollution may be damaging every organ in our bodies, including increasing risk of heart and lung diseases, diabetes and dementia, as well as having negative impacts on the development of children including reduced cognition and leading to babies being born with impaired lungs.

The IPCC’s latest report highlights that unless the global community halves emissions by 2030 and reaches net zero emissions by 2050, we will experience increasingly extreme heatwaves and droughts, flooding from sea-level rises and extreme rainfall and severe crop failures. Climate impacts are already being experienced by communities across the U.K, with floods over the last year damaging over 1000 properties.

Local authorities should consider both climate mitigation and adaptation measures to respond to escalating climate impacts.

Research from the CBI shows that if the UK met air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the economy could benefit by £1.6 billion annually by reducing premature deaths, sickness absence and lower productivity as a result of air pollution.

Additionally, research has shown that investment in climate action at the local level could create over 800,000 green jobs across the UK by 2030, increasing to 1.38 million jobs by 2050. On average 12.7 jobs are created for every £1 million of investment in sustainable transport infrastructure over twelve times the average number of jobs created by investing the same amount in road building projects.

Local authority action to encourage usage of public and active transport also reduces congestion, which has significant economic benefits. A bus carrying 48 passengers at 30mph requires 35m of road to maintain a

safe distance from the vehicle in front, whereas the same passengers in singleoccupancy cars require 1.4km of road.

Contrastingly, expanding roads to ease congestion has been shown to fail by inducing demand - increasing the net distance driven by car. Reallocating local authority spending from road expansion to public and active transport improvements reduces the need for more road space, improves air quality and reduces emissions.

Whilst the rational case can be made, public policy often collides with the bracing cold shower of human emotion. Overcoming our instinctive personal attachment to our cars and changing our ingrained behaviours, will require the boldest of policy, smart delivery and a robust understanding of human behaviour. A ‘build it and they will come’ mentality, has had limited effects and not borne out by the evidence.

diesel and petrol buses travelling within the city centre to be replaced by electric or low-emission models, made possible through applying for grants from the DfT and DEFRA. The introduction of an Ultra Low Emission Zone in London has reduced roadside nitrogen dioxide pollution by a third and cut carbon emissions through driving a shift to active and public transport. Oxford City Council is working with Oxfordshire County Council to implement a Zero Emission Zone on a number of its streets.

Local leaders have a key role in enabling local residents and businesses to make low-carbon decisions. Bath and NE Somerset Council’s Energy Service provides residents with expert advice on heating, insulation and renewable energy, offering people the trusted information needed to make low-carbon choices. Bristol City Council has launched City Leap - a public-private

Members of UK100, a network of local government leaders committed to improving air quality and reaching Net Zero by 2045 or earlier, are taking ambitious action. Camden Council has adopted WHO standards on air quality and designed a Clean Air Action Plan to meet these targets through holding discussions with residents, public institutions and local businesses. The council’s Clean Air for Camden Campaign provides resources for residents on what they can do to improve air quality around their homes, workplaces and schools.

York City Council recently introduced a Clean Air Zone, leading all

partnership offer to deliver low-carbon energy infrastructure across the city.

Portsmouth City Council’s Switched On service provides their residents with a number of ways to save energy, money and carbon.

The UK100 network offers members the opportunity to share best practice with other local authorities on climate and clean air policies and to have a collective voice to express shared challenges and proposals to the UK government.

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To find out more or to join the network, email membership@uk100.org or visit the UK100 website, www.uk100.org 29

The benefits of hyperlocal monitorin reduce ozone pollution Author; Dr. Behzad Heravi, Chief Technology Officer, Vortex IOT.

O

zone is a highly reactive gas consisting of three oxygen molecules, and therefore has the chemical

formula O3.

In the stratosphere, it is formed through naturally occurring reactions between oxygen molecules, aided by UV radiation.

At ground level, ozone is typically formed from reactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides, both of which are emitted from human sources such as combustion such as from car engines (nitrogen oxides) and chemical plants (VOCs).

VOCs can also be naturally emitted by plants as a by-product of photosynthesis. Somewhat confusingly, however, nitrogen oxides can also react with ozone and reduce concentrations at ground level.

This is sometimes observed at roadside locations with high traffic counts which may have lower ozone

30

levels than areas further from the road.

The reactions that take place to form street-level ozone are also dependent on temperature and light.

So street-level ozone levels tend to be higher on hot, sunny days in the summer.

On a shorter timescale, ozone levels tend to be highest in the afternoon

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when solar radiation is at its strongest.

What are the health impacts of street-level ozone?

Due to the highly reactive nature of ozone, most effects and symptoms of ozone exposure are found at the initial contact points: in the mouth, nose,

younger adults are more sensitive to mild-to-moderate impacts such as decreased lung function; however, hospitalisations and mortality relating to ozone exposure are more likely to be people over 65.

Is traditional air quality monitoring enough?

ng to airways and lungs.

Lung function can decrease as cells and tissues within the lungs are damaged by ozone. Cells and tissue in the respiratory tract also get inflamed due to reactions with ozone.

Symptoms can express themselves in a variety of ways, including: • a sore throat • shortness of breath • coughing • discomfort when breathing in There is also strong evidence to show that exposure to ozone can trigger asthma attacks and result in asthma symptoms being more severe.

Some studies have also linked ozone exposure to increased sick days, increased hospital admissions and in severe cases, increased mortality.

The US Environmental Protection Agency outlines these effects in the pyramid shown to the right.

Different people may respond differently when exposed to ozone; with some evidence that children and

Ozone is monitored in the UK as part of the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) which is the DEFRA approved monitoring stations for pollutants. As such, AURN sites are found in most large towns and cities, where pollution levels tend to be higher. However, the complex reactions resulting in both the formation and breakdown of ozone suggest there may be hyperlocal variations in concentration not detected by traditional monitoring methods.

What can we do to reduce ozone exposure?

The World Health Organisation has suggested that ozone levels should not exceed 100µg/m3, but this value is often exceeded, especially during periods of warm, dry weather in spring and summer.

It is difficult to reduce ozone concentrations themselves, as street-level ozone does not have one individual source, however, we can reduce the substances which react together to form ozone.

Nitrogen oxide concentrations can be reduced by reducing the number of cars on the roads, and by using cleaner non-combustion energy sources, while VOCs are harder to remove since they can be naturally occurring, but also because of a lack of monitoring and therefore understanding of them.

Pyramid of health effects resulting from short term ozone exposure

Better monitoring of ozone can determine hotspots and create a rationale for new clean air policies; as well as being used to inform vulnerable residents when there is a high pollution episode to avoid being exposed to dangerous ozone levels.

At Vortex, we believe that to know where to act against air pollution, you must first get a better understanding of it. In an upcoming whitepaper, we use ozone pollution data from 19 AURN sites across London to demonstrate why hyperlocal monitoring is now essential.

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There is a complex relationship between nitrogen oxides and ozone, where nitrogen oxides react to both form ozone and break ozone down.

This makes the overall picture unclear as to how clean air policies may affect ozone concentrations in urban areas.

In the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, where fewer car journeys were made, and concentrations of most pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, decreased, ozone levels actually increased in some urban areas.

31

Local Government Interview

The need to integrate climate change and air quality

By Stephen Cirell, independent consultant specialising in local authority projects and host of the Environment Journal Podcast.

T

his is an important time for climate change and global warming. More so than ever before, the penny is dropping with the public that climate change is happening and something has to be urgently done about it.

Those in the industry have been working away on this for many years.

The IPCC has published five separate reports indicating the scientific basis for the concerns. Its data has helped inform much Governmental policy throughout the world. In the UK, the Climate Change Act 2008 was passed 13 years ago, legally committing the country to reach a target to reduce greenhouse gases. Last year that target was increased to carbon neutrality or net zero carbon by 2050 against a 1990 baseline.

32

Under the intergovernmental conferences - where global deals are hammered out on climate change – successive meetings have raised the stakes on what needs to be done.

Air quality is currently seen as more of a niche area. Cases such as the tragic death of Ella Adoo Kissi Debrah - the 13 year old girl from London whose death made history by being the first time that a Coroner had found that air pollution had made a material contribution to a death – have helped raise awareness, but air quality has not yet received the publicity that climate change has. As a result, there is more acceptance that climate change needs sorting out and a greater sense of urgency amongst the public.

Over 300 local authorities in the UK have now declared a climate

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emergency, together with the Westminster, Holyrood and Senedd national governments. Most make clear that climate change needs urgent action and commits to taking steps towards that goal. An example might be a commitment to be net zero carbon for the Council’s own estate, vehicles and functions by 2030.

Such pledges are normally followed by the development of a Climate Emergency Action Plan. I have worked on many of these programmes over the past three years.

These normally detail the pledge made and indicate how the energy efficiency of buildings will be improved, vehicles transferred to electric and renewable energy measures installed. However, few if any such action plans make provision

Local Government Interview

for - or even mention - air quality.

As Pippa Neill pointed out in an article in the September edition of Air Quality News magazine, climate change and air quality are intrinsically linked. There is now a greater understanding that climate change mitigation can help to reduce air pollution and clean air measures can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, this is not always the case.

This point was taken up at the Northern Air Quality Conference in Manchester, where Dr Gary Fuller made the comment that some climate change measures might actually exacerbate air quality standards.

Ironically enough, a similar issue arises with biodiversity. Some authorities have declared a climate

change and biodiversity emergency, with pledges on tree planting and nature networks. If this is the case their action plans cover this vital area; most do not.

Yet living within a reasonable distance of public open space has been shown to be beneficial to health and well-being, as well as providing a useful carbon sink. In air quality circles, it is also well known that such facilities improve air quality generally.

So what we need is for climate emergency action to carefully weave together climate change, biodiversity and air quality policy into a holistic and comprehensive programme of action at local level.

This is the only way that we can be sure the full potential of local action can be achieved. This would also

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give air quality a significant boost by aligning it with the most topical of the environmental challenges.

The question is will local authorities get this right? More regulation is bound to follow in relation to air quality and so eventually it will have to be addressed more comprehensively than has been the case so far.

It would be a tragedy if the opportunity in the interim was lost.

Stephen Cirell is an independent consultant specialising in local authority projects and is author of ‘Local Authority Climate Emergency Declarations’ (published by APSE).

He also hosts the Environment Journal / Air Quality News monthly Podcast series.

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Legal

Environment bill finally becomes env 2021 – where did we get to on air qua Law firm, Squire Patton Boggs explain what the new Environment Act means for air quality.

O Anita Lloyd, Director, Squire Patton Boggs

n 9 November, the Environment Bill, the UK’s new flagship law on environmental governance and regulation post-Brexit, received royal assent and became the Environment Act 2021. It has been a long road since the Bill was first introduced back in January 2020, and there have been many hotly debated issues along the way, not least the provisions relating to air quality. The debate on a number of provisions between the House of Commons and the House of Lords continued right up until the end, so what are the final provisions of the Act in relation to air quality?

Part 4 of the Act (and associated Schedules 11 and 12) is dedicated to air quality, but the air quality provisions that have actually been the most high-profile are contained in Chapter 1 of Part 1, on setting targets.

to include a target to reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to align with (or be more stringent than) the World Health Organisation target. This was consistently resisted by the government, and no firm target appears in the Act. However, the Act empowers the Secretary of State to set long-term air quality (and other environmental) targets, and requires at least one long-term target to be set in relation to air quality (and in 3 other priory areas). There is also a specific requirement on the Secretary of State to set a shorter-term legally binding target to reduce PM2.5 in ambient air. The Act requires the government to lay draft regulations before Parliament by 31 October 2022 on at least two air quality targets, one on PM2.5, and another long-term target.

Other air quality measures

Air quality targets There were widespread demands from campaigners, and in amendments proposed by the House of Lords for the Act 34

airqualitynews.com

Part 4 of the Act (and Schedules 11 and 12) contains other provisions relating to air quality, which can be divided into four main subject-areas.

vironment act ality?

Legal

Schedule 11 amends and supplements air quality provisions in the Environment Act 1995. It places a duty on the Secretary of State to review the air quality strategy at least every five years, and to produce an annual report to Parliament on progress towards England’s air quality objectives. It also strengthens the local air quality management (LAQM) framework, with the intent of enabling greater cooperation at local level and broadening the range of organisations that play a role in improving local air quality. Responsibility for tackling local air pollution is now to be shared between designated relevant public authorities, all tiers of local government and neighbouring authorities. The changes to LAQM include requirements for action plans where local air is in breach of air quality objectives.

Schedule 12 amends the Clean Air Act 1993 to allow local authorities to impose financial penalties in smoke control areas. This seems to be squarely aimed at reducing PM2.5 emissions, since domestic stoves/fires are known to contribute significantly to PM2.5 levels. The existing criminal offence of emitting smoke from a chimney in a smoke control area is replaced with a civil penalty regime, which should enable a quicker and simpler style of enforcement for emissions of smoke in these areas.

Existing offences relating to the sale of certain solid fuels in smoke control areas are also enhanced by removing the financial limit on the potential fine that can be imposed, and requiring retailers to notify customers that it is illegal to buy unapproved fuel for use in a smoke control area, unless it will be burned in an approved appliance.

Schedule 12 also amends the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to remove an existing exemption, the effect of which is that smoke from a dwelling in a smoke control area could be actioned as a statutory nuisance. Smoke from chimneys in a smoke control area could therefore in future be the subject of a local authority abatement notice, breach of which is a criminal offence.

Finally, Part 4 of the Act gives powers to the Secretary of State to make regulations for or connected with the recall of relevant products, namely vehicles and engines, if they do not meet relevant environmental standards. This would of course include standards on air emissions. Such regulations may compel manufacturers and distributors to recall products, and may include a minimum proportion of products subject to a recall notice to be returned.

Next steps The Act is very much a framework and relies on, and in some cases requires, the preparation of secondary legislation to implement many of the initiatives. For many of these, there is no fixed timetable, but there is a commitment that air quality target setting legislation needs to be produced by the end of October 2022. The provisions in Part 4 amending existing legislation in relation to air quality are also not yet in force and the date for this is “to be appointed”.

So far, only the provisions regarding the new Office for Environmental Protection have been brought into force, so it will be a case of continuing to monitor when these air quality provisions will come into effect.

airqualitynews.com

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Marketplace Enviro Technology Services

AS Modelling & Data Ltd

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RHT Industries Limited

Founded in 1983 and now active in over 67 countries with a multimillion pound turnover, ET has evolved over 37 years to become a global provider of air quality and emissions monitoring systems and servicing. The company sell and lease equipment, systems and services covering the monitoring of ambient air quality (AQM), continuous emissions (CEM) and indoor air quality.

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AS Modelling & Data provides dispersion and deposition modelling using the latest version of ADMS for a wide range of clients including farms, the waste water industry, waste management, general manufacturing and Local Authorities. Our team can provide the expertise, modelling, data and reports for odour, ammonia and air quality assessments including detailed modelling of emissions from ammonia scrubbers and innovative ventilation systems.

AS Modelling & Data can also provide meteorological station data and site-specific Numerical Weather Prediction data for any site location in the world, which can be converted for use within ADMS. We can provide data for meteorological parameters on request and data can be provided quickly at affordable prices. stevesmith@asmodata.co.uk

GRAMM is the UK leading specialist in the design, supply & installation of environmental acoustic barriers. We have constructed literally 1,000’s of Km’s of acoustic barriers of all types of materials throughout the UK and Europe.

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CarTakeBack recycle vehicles to the highest standard and have a successful history of handling and supporting vehicle scrappage schemes - including government and local authority schemes as well as vehicle manufacturer and dealership lead schemes.

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Data Monitoring Systems Ltd are a complete data solutions provider From your single analyser, right through to your complete network, our Data Gateway has the ability to connect to 20 analysers simultaneously. Major analysers, for example, Thermo, Palas, Ecotech, Vaisala, and more may be connected to our Data Gateways with automatic calibrations also being carried out.

Data ratification, and reports may be carried using our Reports package.

Coming soon: ï Indoor Air Monitoring system measuring: • TVOC, • Particles • CO2 • Temperature • Humidity with display, mobile phone and WiFi connectivity.

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Arcola Energy is a leading specialist in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for energy and transport. We help our customers to develop the right technology, supply-chain, deployment strategy, and after market solutions, avoiding costly mistakes and aiming to delight end-users.

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Our manufacturing, installation and service facility in Liverpool City Region has capacity to supply 1,000s of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles per year.

T: 01382 524916 enquiries@datamonitoring. co.uk www.datamonitoring.co.uk

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Em-Monitors (Environmental Monitoring) is a specialist provider and manufacturer of a range of environmental monitoring equipment. We recognise the need to minimise cost by providing accurate and meaningful data remotely to any location in the world.

Our air monitoring systems cover indicative indoor and air quality systems as well as reference system required to report to national standards. Environmental Monitoring also provide workplace monitoring equipment and training, so that you can produce professional reports with confidence.

Environmental Monitoring covers all your environmental monitoring requirements.

T: 01539 727 878 www.airquality-monitoring.co.uk em-monitors.co.uk

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