London’s dense road network and highbuildings mean that central London is oneof the most polluted places in the UK andcurrently one of the main areas failing tocomply with legally binding limits. OxfordStreet, one of London’s most notoriousstreets, is regularly referred to as the mostpolluted street in Europe. In London, airpollution is estimated to shorten lives by140,743 years – the equivalent of up to9,400 premature deaths and over 3,400hospital admissions a year.1 These figurescome from a study carried out by King’sCollege London looking at two keypollutants: nitrogen dioxide (NO2) andfine particulates known as PM2.5s.

In London, the principal driver of airpollution is road transport and it isestimated that nearly 40%of all NOxemissions come from diesel vehicles. Inthe whole of the UK, over 50% of newvehicles entering the fleet run on diesel,often with marginal climate changebenefit, because policies have in recentyears incentivised diesel over petrol.

Air Pollutionin London

FACTSHEET

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The Problem

As a result, nearly all vans, lorries, taxis,and busses run on diesel. Nitrogen dioxideand particulates from these engines arepoorly controlled, resulting in worseningair pollution across the UK’s major city-centres including London.

Addressing poor air quality in London bypromoting zero-emission transport suchas walking and cycling, and investing inelectric public transport will improvehealth directly, by reducing traffic-relatedair pollution, and indirectly, by tacklingclimate change and its deleterious effectson health and health services. Byencouraging a cleaner and smaller vehiclefleet, London can set an example for otherUK cities to reduce the burden of diseasefrom air pollution, improve physicalactivity, and meet the climate changecommitments under the Paris Agreement.

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The London Air Quality Network,operated and managed by theEnvironment Research group atKing’s College London, co-ordinatesand improves air pollutionmonitoring in London. The data iscollected by air quality monitoringstations to allow long historymeasurements with the sameequipment at the same location.

Air Quality Monitoring

King’s College recently conducted apilot study to measure personalexposure to pollution from differentvehicles that spent the daytravelling around busy Londonareas. This new pioneering work isassociated with an increasedinterest in monitoring air qualityaround buildings where vulnerablepopulations gather, such as schools,care homes and hospitals.

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Tackling air pollution in London andacross the UK requires a whole ofGovernment approach based on a robustAir Quality Strategy that will support localauthorities in implementing a set ofmeasures including promoting electricvehicles, restricting the most pollutingvehicles from entering city centres andincreasing cycling and walkingaccessibility. Clean Air Zones are one ofthe key elements of the UK’s air qualitystrategy and have the potential transformurban environments and improve healthand air quality, whilst also meeting climatechange targets. However to achieve thebest possible outcomes, it is critical thatlocal authorities receive adequatefinancial support from centralGovernment.

The Solution

· ActionWe call on the UK Government to support the implementation of strengthened (both in scope and coverage) Clean Air Zones across the UK’s major cities, to bring air quality levels in-line with EU standards. This should be enabled by a package of new policy mechanisms and budgetary measures included in the new UK Government Air Quality Strategy to be finalized by the end of July 2017.

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References:

1. Walton, H. et al (2015) Understanding the Health Impacts of Air Pollution in London. King’s College London for GLA and TFL. Figures relate to the health impacts of NO2 and PM2.5 pollution in 2010

* Images ® Global Call for Climate Action / Greg McNevin

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Unmask My City is a global initiative by doctors, nurses, public health practitioners, and allied healthcare professionals dedicated to improving air quality and reducing emissions in our cities.

This will save millions of lives, improve health outcomes for billions of people, and make a huge contribution to greenhouse gas reductions needed to keep the world safe from climate change crises.