Air pollution in the United Kingdom

Air pollution in the United Kingdom has long been considered a significant health issue. Many areas, including major cities like London are found to be significantly and regularly above legal and recommended levels. Air pollution in the UK is a major cause of diseases such as asthma, lung disease, stroke, and heart disease, and is estimated to cause forty thousand premature deaths each year, which is about 8.3% of deaths, while costing around £40 billion each year.[1][2]

UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs air quality monitoring station (UK-AIR ID: UKA00362) at the National Trust's Wicken Fen nature reserve

Air pollution is monitored and regulated. Air quality targets for particulates, nitrogen dioxide and ozone,[3] set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), are mostly aimed at local government representatives responsible for the management of air quality in cities, where air quality management is the most urgent. In 2017, research by the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and the Royal College of Physicians revealed that air pollution levels in 44 cities in the UK are above the recommended World Health Organization guidelines.[4][5]

The UK government has plans to improve pollution due to traffic, and is banning the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2040, and is phasing out the use of coal in its electrical power generation.

History

Prehistory to the 20th Century

Mining has existed in Great Britain since prehistoric times and lead mines may have been worked as early as Roman Britain. The Pipe Rolls refer to lead and silver smelting in the Middle Ages.[6][7][8][9] Research on a Swiss ice-core indicates that atmospheric pollution containing lead between the years 1170 and 1216 was as high as that during the Industrial Revolution, correlating accurately with smelting in the Peak District, the primary European source of lead and silver at the time, with spikes in pollution associated closely with the increasing power of successive monarchs during their reigns.[10][11][12] In 1306, Edward I introduced the first prohibitive environmental law, against the usage of 'sea coal' from Northumbria. Sulphur-rich coal from this exposed seam was increasingly being used because of dwindling supplies of wood in and around cities, but it produced stifling smoke and fumes. The legislation made little difference to the population even up to Elisabeth I's time. By the 1600s, smoke pollution was also having an effect on building exteriors. In a landmark legal case from 1610, judgement was awarded to William Aldred against his neighbour, with references to the smell of pig sties and fumes from lime kilns, "stopping of the wholesome air" and "infecting and corrupting the air." [13][14][15] Through the 1800s, coal-burning for the Industrial Revolution in particular made the UK the world's leading source of carbon-based air pollution by a great margin [surpassed by the United States in 1888 and Germany in 1913].[16][17] Local campaigning societies sprang up to complain about the health risks, such as the Committee for the Consumption of Smoke in Leeds.[15] The Alkali Act of 1863 was passed - and intermittently amended - to regulate irritant gaseous hydrochloric acid produced in the Leblanc process to make sodium carbonate, but also the sulphuric acid often caused by emissions from the same factories.[18] The Public Health Act was passed in 1875, which legislated not just for the health effects of air pollution but also the visual effects. Experiments by the London County Council and the Meteorological Council from 1902–1903 found that 20% of London fogs were due to smoke alone, all were made denser and longer-lasting by smoke and that the death rate "enormously expands" during the fogs.[19] By the 20th century - at least - respiratory diseases were the UK's biggest killers [the death-rate from bronchitis in the UK remained the highest in the world in the early 1950s, 65 per 100,000 in England and Wales, more than twice than of the nearest other country, Belgium].[20][15]

The Great Smog of 1952
Main article: Great Smog of 1952
The Great Smog of 1952 in London.

Early in December 1952, a cold fog descended upon London. Because of the cold, Londoners began to burn more coal than usual. The resulting air pollution was trapped by the inversion layer formed by the dense mass of cold air. Concentrations of pollutants, coal smoke in particular, built up dramatically. The problem was made worse by use of low-quality, high-sulphur coal for home heating in London in order to permit export of higher-quality coal, because of the country's tenuous postwar economic situation. The "fog", or smog, was so thick that driving became difficult or impossible.[21] The extreme reduction in visibility was accompanied by an increase in criminal activity as well as transportation delays and a virtual shut down of the city. During the 4 day period of fog, at least 4,000 people died as a direct result of the weather.[22]

April 2014

More areas of England warned of 'very high' air pollution in April 2014. High levels of pollution in London and other parts of the south east of England may at worst days cause sore eyes and sore throats and experts warned those with heart conditions and asthma to stay inside.[23][24]

April 2015

On 29 April 2015, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the government must take immediate action to cut air pollution,[25] following a case brought by environmental lawyers at ClientEarth.[26]

Published pollution information

The UK has established an air quality network where levels of the key air pollutants[27] are published by monitoring centres.[28] Air quality in Oxford, Bath and London[29] is particularly poor. One study[30] performed by the Calor Gas company and published in the Guardian newspaper compared walking in Oxford on an average day to smoking over sixty light cigarettes.

The UK Air Quality Archive contains more precise information[31] which permits a cities management of pollutants to be compared against the national air quality objectives[32] set by DEFRA in 2000

Localized peak values are often cited, but average values are also important to human health. The UK National Air Quality Information Archive offers almost real-time monitoring of "current maximum" air pollution measurements for many UK towns and cities.[33] This source offers a wide range of constantly updated data, including:

  • Hourly Mean Ozone (µg/m3)
  • Hourly Mean Nitrogen dioxide (µg/m3)
  • Maximum 15-Minute Mean Sulphur dioxide (µg/m3)
  • 8-Hour Mean Carbon monoxide (mg/m3)
  • 24-Hour Mean PM10 (µg/m3 Grav Equiv)

DEFRA acknowledges that air pollution has a significant effect on health and has produced a simple banding index system[34] that is used to create a daily warning system that is issued by the BBC Weather Service to indicate air pollution levels.[35] DEFRA has published guidelines for people suffering from respiratory and heart diseases.[36]

Patients visiting doctors' surgeries, health centres and hospitals are exposed to polluted air that breaches WHO guidelines. A third of GP surgeries and a quarter of hospitals are in areas that breach WHO guidelines. Pollutants, notably toxic particles emitted by diesel vehicles, are linked to lifelong health issues like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, strokes and lung cancer among others.[37]

Pollutants, notably toxic particles emitted by diesel vehicles are entering children's lungs, potentially getting into their blood streams and their brains. This can effect children's long term health, even lifelong health, their life expectancies and their intelligence. The government lost three high court cases because its plans to deal with air pollution were considered too weak, green groups and clean air campaigners frequently criticise the government. Air pollution leads to 40,000 early deaths annually and seriously impacts the lives of hundreds of thousands more, air pollution costs the NHS and social care services £40m annually.[38] The UK has also been taken to the European court due to air pollution.[39] Queen Mary University of London published research on children's exposure to air pollution across the school day and found that they were disproportionately exposed to higher doses of pollution during the school run and whilst at school – particularly at break time in the school playground.[40]

The Royal College of Paediatricians, the Royal College of Physicians and Unicef are concerned over winter 2018/2019. Air pollution will worsen as people burn fuel to heat their homes. When people's respiratory systems are weakened through air pollution low temperatures will weaken them further this particularly affects children and elderly people. It is feared hospital patients with respiratory problems will add to the pressure on the NHS which is regularly overburdened in winter.[41]

As of 2018, approximately 4.5 million children in the UK (one in three) is growing up in a town or city with unsafe levels of particulate pollution.[42]

Remediation

In 2019, toxic air leads to the premature deaths of at least 40,000 people a year in the UK – 9,000 in London – and it leaves hundreds of thousands more suffering serious long-term health problems.[43][44][45]

London

London mayor Sadiq Khan launched the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in April 2019 which involves a charge on older diesel and petrol cars with £12.50 per day. Busses pay £100 per day. This follows the London low emission zone plan operating since 2008.[43][44] The ULEZ was expected to cause a 20% reduction in road traffic emissions and resulted in a drop of the worst polluting vehicles entering the zone each day from 35,578 in March to 26,195 in April after the charge was introduced.[46][47] A poll in April 2019 by YouGov found that 72% of Londoners supported using emissions charging to tackle both air pollution and congestion.[43]

The zone will be extended to the North and South Circular from 2021 so that it would cover an area containing 3.8 million people.[48][49] Once the zone is expanded, an estimated 100,000 cars, 35,000 vans and 3,000 lorries will pay the charge daily.[50]

England Air management

If a local authority finds an area where the targets are not likely to be met, it must declare it an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA)[51] and produce a Local Air Quality Action Plan[52] to improve the air quality. DEFRA has published a list of local authorities with AQMAs.[53] The action plan may include measures for idle reduction of vehicle engines. An example is the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.[54]

Government

On 26 July 2017, the British government announced plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in Britain by 2040.[55] This follows a similar announcement by the French government on 6 July 2017.[56]

Industry

On 25 July 2017, BMW announced that it would start production of an all-electric version of the Mini at its plant in Cowley, Oxfordshire, in 2019.[57] Volvo had earlier announced that all its new cars from 2019 would be electric or hybrid.[58]

See also

References
  1. Roberts, Michelle (23 February 2016). "Pollution link to 40,000 deaths a year" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  2. Silver, Katie (20 October 2017). "Pollution linked to one in six deaths" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. "National air quality objectives" (PDF). uk-air.defra.gov.uk.
  4. "Air in 44 UK cities and towns too dangerous to breathe, UN pollution report finds".
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. French, C. N. "The 'Submerged Forest' palaeosols of Cornwall" (PDF). The 'Submerged Forest' Palaeosols of Cornwall. Geoscience in South-west England. 1999. 9: 365–369. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  7. Ford, Trevor David (2002). Rocks & Scenery of the Peak District. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Landmark Publishing Ltd. p. 80.
  8. Rieuwerts, J.H.; Ford, T. David. (1976). "Odin Mine". Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society. 6 (4): 7.
  9. Historic England. "Odin Mine nucleated lead mine and ore works, 350m WNW of Knowlegates Farm (1014870)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  10. Loveluck, Christopher P.; McCormick, Michael; Spaulding, Nicole E.; Clifford, Heather; Handley, Michael J.; Hartman, Laura; Hoffmann, Helene; Korotkikh, Elena V.; Kurbatov, Andrei V.; More, Alexander F.; Sneed, Sharon B.; Mayewski, Paul A. "Alpine ice-core evidence for the transformation of the European monetary system, AD 640–670". Antiquity. 92 (366).
  11. "Alpine glacier reveals lead pollution from C12th Britain as bad as Industrial Revolution". www.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  12. Loveluck, Christopher P.; More, Alexander F.; Spaulding, Nicole E.; Clifford, Heather; Handley, Michael J.; Hartman, Laura; Korotkikh, Elena V.; Kurbatov, Andrei V.; Mayewski, Paul A.; Sneed, Sharon B.; McCormick, Michael. "Alpine ice and the annual political economy of the Angevin Empire, from the death of Thomas Becket to Magna Carta, c. AD 1170–1216". www.cambridge.org/. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  13. Fraser, John Farquhar (1826). The Reports of Sir Edward Coke, Knt: In Thirteen Parts. 5. London: J. Butterworth & Son. p. 102.
  14. "King Edward's I's clean air law". www.thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  15. "Air Pollution Goes Back Way Further Than You Think". www.smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  16. "History of Air Pollution Laws - Part 1". www.thecmmgroup.com. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  17. "The History of Carbon Dioxide Emissions". www.wri.org. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  18. "ALKALI ACT (1863)—PETITION FOR AMENDMENT.—OBSERVATIONS". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  19. Masson, David Orme; Chubb, Laurence Wensley (1911). "Smoke" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 276.
  20. "AIR POLLUTION". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  21. Nielsen, John (2002-12-12). "The Killer Fog of '52: Thousands died as Poisonous Air Smothered London". National Public Radio.
  22. "On this Day: 1952 London Fog Clears After days of Chaos". BBC News. 2005-12-09.
  23. Weaver, Matthew (3 April 2014). "Smog alert: 'very high' air pollution levels spread across England" – via The Guardian.
  24. Mason, Rowena; correspondent, political (3 April 2014). "David Cameron accused of playing down role of pollution in UK smog" – via The Guardian.
  25. "Court orders UK to cut NO2 air pollution". BBC News. BBC. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  26. "UK Supreme Court orders Government to take "immediate action" on air pollution". ClientEarth. 29 April 2015. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  27. "The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA): Air Pollution". Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  28. "LAQM Air Quality Management Areas". Archived from the original on 2009-04-02. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  29. [email protected], ERG Web Services -. "London Air Quality Network -- The comprehensive source of information about air pollution in London -- Home".
  30. Taking the Oxford air adds up to a 60-a-day habit (a newspaper article in The Guardian)
  31. [email protected], Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). "Home- Defra, UK". www.airquality.co.uk.
  32. "UK National Air Quality Objectives". Archived from the original on 2009-04-17. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  33. Current Air Pollution Bulletin Archived 2006-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
  34. [email protected], Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). "Daily Air Quality Index- Defra, UK". www.airquality.co.uk.
  35. "BBC Weather Service".
  36. "Air Pollution - What it means for your health". Archived from the original on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  37. Patients at thousands of hospitals and GP practices 'breathing toxic air' The Guardian
  38. UK children inhaling toxic air on school run and in classroom The Guardian
  39. UK is endangering people's health by denying their right to clean air, says UN The Guardian
  40. "THE TOXIC SCHOOL RUN". Unicef UK. October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  41. UK children face winter health crisis due to pollution, say doctors The Guardian
  42. Snaith, Emma (2019-03-25). "Two-thirds of teachers 'support banning cars near school gates'". The Independent. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  43. Taylor, Matthew; Sedghi, Amy (8 April 2019). "Londoners support charging 'dirty' drivers, says air pollution study". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-12 – via www.theguardian.com.
  44. Collinson, Patrick (5 January 2019). "London's ultra-low emission zone: what you need to know". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-12 – via www.theguardian.com.
  45. "Air pollution 'kills 40,000 a year' in the UK, says report". nhs.uk. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
  46. "Seventy per cent of vehicles meet new Ulez standards in first weeks of charge ROSS LYDALL". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  47. "ULEZ cuts number of worst polluting cars in central London".
  48. "London Mayor confirms Ultra-Low Emission Zone will start in 2019". www.fleetnews.co.uk.
  49. "ULEZ: The politics of London's air pollution".
  50. "Ultra-low emission zone comes into force in central London".
  51. [email protected], Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). "Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs)- Defra, UK". uk-air.defra.gov.uk.
  52. "Action Planning Guidance and Help. Action Planning. Local Air Quality Management Support - Defra, UK". Laqm.defra.gov.uk. 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  53. "List of Local Authorities with AQMAs - Defra, UK". Uk-air.defra.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  54. "Idling Vehicles Contribute to Air Pollution". www.dudley.gov.uk.
  55. "New diesel and petrol cars face 2040 ban". 26 July 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  56. Chrisafis, Angelique; Vaughan, Adam (6 July 2017). "France to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040". the Guardian.
  57. "Electric Mini to be built in Oxford". 25 July 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  58. Vaughan, Adam (5 July 2017). "All Volvo cars to be electric or hybrid from 2019". the Guardian.

Further reading
  • Anderson, H. Ross. "Air pollution and mortality: A history." Atmospheric Environment (2009) 43#1 pp: 142-152.
  • Brimblecombe, Peter. The Big Smoke: A History of Air Pollution in London Since Medieval Times (Methuen, 1987)
  • Ciecieznski, N. J. "The Stench of Disease: Public Health and the Environment in Late-Medieval English towns and cities." Health, Culture and Society (2013) 4#1 pp: 91-104.
  • Hanlon, W. Walker. "Pollution and Mortality in the 19th Century (UCLA and NBER, 2015) online
  • Mosley, Stephen. "'A Network of Trust': Measuring and Monitoring Air Pollution in British Cities, 1912-1960." Environment and History (2009) 15#3 pp: 273-302.
  • Thorsheim, Peter. Inventing Pollution: Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain since 1800 (2009)
  • Williamson, Tom. An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950 (A&C Black, 2013)


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