‘London Underground to undergo massive clean-up after experts find nine of the world’s most dangerous superbugs’ says the news today. Not before time. Anybody involved with air quality issues in London has long known that the tube network is a toxic environment. It’s also (unfortunately) the only way to get around much of London in a sensible time for most of the day, which is […]
Many commentators and organisations publish lists of what they see as the ‘greatest global threats’ to humanity and/or the world in the 21st century. Some have serious work behind them, some are more a ‘top ten’ kind of list, but they’re all from reputable sources. I thought it would be interesting to research a number of these thought pieces, from multiple sources including the UN, WEF, […]
The Guardian reports today that more than 800 schools, nurseries and colleges in London are exposed to illegal levels of air pollution. The number represents around a quarter (or around 250,000) of all school children in London. Other research studies in the past, notably by Policy Exchange and King’s College London, have found there to be up to 1,000 schools suffering in this way, but […]
Much of the discussion about the ‘robot revolution’ today is centring around the potential for mass unemployment, and what should be done about it. The existing commentary correctly (in my opinion) focuses on how to handle the aftermath rather than how to control it, given that the introduction of such technologies is all but inevitable. But focusing on jobs is missing the key point about AI. In […]
A decade-long Canadian study of 6.6 million people, published in The Lancet today, found that 1 in 10 dementia deaths in people living within 50 metres of a busy road was attributable to traffic fumes and noise. The team tracked adults aged between 20 and 85 living in Ontario from 2001 to 2012 and over the study period, more than 243,000 people developed dementia, 31,500 […]
According to the European Environment Agency’s Air quality in Europe – 2016 report, 467,000 people died prematurely in 2013 due to air pollution. With over 430,000 due to PM2.5 and 71,000 from NO2 (there is certain level of cross over). In the UK, air pollution overall costs the economy more than £20bn per year – just under 16% of the NHS’s annual £116bn budget. How is […]
Because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And today, air quality monitors are sparse & expensive (only 85 official stations in London monitoring NO2 and only 15 monitoring PM2.5), not real-time, and data output is mostly based on historic averages. 99.999% of the reported data points are calculated, not from real (or real-time) data, resulting in spatial & temporal variability not being captured (e.g. […]
The survey, commissioned by ClientEarth, shows 68% of London parents are worried about their children breathing in dirty air. More women than men highlighted their fears — 71% against 64%. Mothers have told of their concern that as they push buggies along the street, their young children are sitting at the same level as tailpipes and the pollution being emitted by many diesel cars and other vehicles. They’re […]
London’s air pollution problem is still far from solved. Progress has been made on some pollutants, for example levels of carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide in London have dropped by 80% since 1996. There has been some progress in reducing particulate (PM) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) pollution, but levels still remain high. Analysis by Policy Exchange of data from air quality monitoring sites shows that […]