Rome will ban diesel cars by 2024

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Rome, one of Europe’s most traffic-clogged cities and home to thousands of ancient outdoor monuments threatened by pollution, plans to ban diesel cars from the center by 2024, its mayor said.

Virginia Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: “If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures.”

Her comments followed a court ruling in Germany that cities there can ban the most heavily polluting diesel cars from their streets.

About two-thirds of the 1.8 million new veicles sold in Italy last year were diesel, according to industry figures.

Rome has no major industries, so nearly all of the air pollution in the Italian capital is caused by vehicles.

The city regularly tries to ban older, more polluting vehicles from roads on days when pollution reaches critical levels.

It has also tried to reduce pollution by allowing only cars whose number plates end in either odd or even numbers to circulate on alternate days.

But both regulations are widely flouted and lightly enforced by traffic police. To skirt the alternate days regulation, many families buy a used car with a different number plate.

Apart from health issues, pollution from combustion engines causes severe damage to Rome’s many ancient outdoor monuments.

According to a study last year by a branch of the culture ministry, 3,600 stone monuments and 60 bronze sculptures risk serious deterioration because of air pollution.

Ahead of celebrations marking the start of the new millennium in 2000, the darkened facade of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican was cleaned as part of a project that lasted several years.

But fresh signs of pollution-related stains are visible again.

Before the German court’s ruling on Tuesday, officials in highly industrialized Milan, in northern Italy, had already announced plans to make the city diesel-free by 2030.

via Rome will ban diesel cars by 2024

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Beijing issues yellow alert over air pollution

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Beijing’s air pollution emergency response office issued a yellow alert for smog Tuesday, forecasting the air pollution to persist until Wednesday night.

The yellow alert warned of an air quality index of more than 150 micrograms of harmful fine particulate matter per cubic meter of air for two consecutive days.

Under China’s four-tier warning system, red is the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

This round of smog is expected to hit Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, according to the Institute of Atmospheric Physics with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

via Beijing issues yellow alert over air pollution – Global Times

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Brussels to make public transport free on high air pollution days

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

The new rules will also see car speed limits cut and wood-burning stoves banned in a drive to improve air quality in the city

Brussels has moved to make the city’s public transport and bike share system free on the smoggiest days in a bid to drive down pollution levels and meet EU air quality directives.

After two consecutive days of high particulate matter (PM) levels – defined as surpassing an average of 51-70 micrograms per cubic metre of air – buses, trams and metros would have to open their doors completely free, under new city council rules.

Speed limits for cars would be also cut by about a third and wood burning for stoves would be banned under the law, which was forwarded for judicial review last week.

Pascal Smet, Brussels’ mobility minister said the measures would redress tax and planning benefits that had benefited the city’s 350,000 daily car commuters over many decades.

“We need to create quality public space,” he told the Guardian. “Research shows that the more space you give to cars, the more cars you attract. Indeed, the most car-friendly cities are also the most congested. By giving back space to pedestrians and cyclists, cities can create places where people meet and connect.”

The city’s failure to deal with its shifting pall of toxic air had embarrassed EU officials and diplomats who often spluttered their way to meetings where they discussed air quality in the bloc as a whole.

Last month, Brussels moved to address the problem with a strategy of low emissions zones that will progressively ban the most polluting cars from its streets. City buses will all be electrified by 2030.

Meanwhile, city residents will be able to check PM levels on a phone app or a real-time website to see when pollution limits are breached.

These kinds of blue sky actions may be watched closely by officials in London, which reached its legal yearly pollution limit last month. The UK as a whole has been in breach of the EU’s air quality directive since 2010.

Brussels planners are now attempting to create a child and family-friendly city, according to city officials. “The idea is not to ban cars from the city, but to find a new balance,” Smet said.

via Brussels to make public transport free on high air pollution days | Environment | The Guardian

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Mongolian air pollution causing health crisis: UNICEF

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Smog in the Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, is causing a public health crisis, especially among children, with treatment costs likely to put the cash-strapped country under increasing strain, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.

The government needed to take urgent action to limit smog-induced health problems, UNICEF and Mongolia’s National Center for Public Health said in a study, adding that a failure to act could push treatment costs up by a third by 2025, amounting to a further 4.8 billion tugrik ($2 million) a year in the capital.

“Air pollution has become a child health crisis in Ulaanbaatar, putting every child and pregnancy at risk,” UNICEF Mongolia Representative Alex Heikens said in a release.

“The risks include stillbirth, preterm birth, lower birth weight, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, inhibited brain development and death,” he said.

Pollution levels in Ulaanbaatar had become worse than that in cities such as Beijing and New Delhi, UNICEF and the public health agency said in their report, released on Thursday.

Concentrations of breathable airborne particles known as PM2.5 were as high as 3,320 micrograms per cubic meter at one monitoring station on Jan. 30, they said.

Average PM2.5 readings for January stood at about 206 micrograms in Ulaanbaatar, according to Reuters calculations based on incomplete government data.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends annual average PM2.5 concentrations of no more than 10 micrograms. PM2.5 in Beijing stood at 34 micrograms in January, down 70.7 percent from a year earlier.

Mongolia has struggled with pollution in its capital, where an influx of out-of-work herders migrating from the countryside has seen the population double in less than two decades.

The government has offered subsidies for more-efficient wood- and coal-burning stoves and it is also providing free electricity at night in some districts.

But smog levels spike in the bitterly cold winters, especially in poor “ger” neighborhoods, named after the felt tents in which many migrants live.

Many ger households burn coal or even trash to keep warm and the smog they produce has led to a surge in respiratory and heart disease and stoked anger and protests.

“Reducing air pollution levels is the only long-term sustainable solution to protecting children’s health,” Heikens said.

“In the meantime, thousands of children will continue to suffer unless urgent action is taken.”

via Mongolian air pollution causing health crisis: UNICEF

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INTRODUCING THE NEW RESPRO® PRO-SEAL™

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

The newest addition to the Respro® range: The Pro-Seal™ is designed to guarantee a better seal and greater comfort while wearing your Respro® mask. It can be applied retrospectively to any Respro® mask.

Available Spring 2018.

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INTRODUCING THE NEW RESPRO® TECHNO™ PLUS

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

The latest in our range of sports pollution wear, with updated design and performance enhancing features.

Available soon.

Posted in Air Quality, Respro® Masks | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Could city dwellers be breathing themselves to an early grave?

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

 

New research shows that 90 minutes of open and constant exposure of oneself to the air in Kampala city could result in health complications some of which are chronic

Air pollution in Uganda has now become so bad that the danger to the health of people like cyclers and pedestrians plying their trade on the roads especially here in Kampala outweighs the benefits.

New research shows that 90 minutes of open and constant exposure of oneself to the air in Kampala city could result in health complications some of which are chronic.

In this week’s Panorama report titled: Air quality in Kampala: A deathtrap, Walter Mwesigye exposes the perils of Kampala’s contaminated air, which could send many to the graves.

via Could city dwellers be breathing themselves to an early grave? | NTV

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Smog Monday: Paris air pollution levels to hit dangerous high

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Ile-de-France authorities have warned that bad weather and rising air pollution levels will expose Parisians to an alarming upsurge in fine-particle matter this Monday.
Paris is set to officially surpass the “warning” threshold for poor air quality.

According to Airparif, the air quality monitoring network for Ile-de-France, the concentration of unhealthy fine particles in the atmosphere is expected to be between 45 and 55 μg / m3.

The warning threshold is of 50 μg / m3, leading Airparif to expect a dangerously high level of air pollution in the capital unless the city’s residents take drastic action.

Paris police are calling on drivers and motorists in Ile-de-France to reduce their speed from 130 km / h to 110 km / h on the motorways, from 110 km / h to 90 km / h on fast lanes and dual carriageways, and from 90 km / h to 70 km / h elsewhere.

Anyone driving a vehicle over 3,5 tonnes in weight are also asked to avoid the capital.

“Ile-de-France is experiencing a new episode of fine-particle air pollution, as a result of unfavorable weather, the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere, as well as wood burning and city traffic,” Paris police explained in a press brief.

City authorities are also asking Parisians to limit their indoor heating and avoid lighting wood fires and burning green waste in the open air.

Fine-particles such as “PM2.5 particles”, which are particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometres or less, are known to produce respiratory and cardiovascular illness.
These particles are small enough to invade even the smallest airways of the human body.
A 2016 study found that air pollution is behind the deaths of 48,000 people in France every year, arguing that most of the deaths are preventable.
According to the World Health Organization, over 47 million French people are exposed to a level of these fine particles that is considered to be unsafe.

via Smog Monday: Paris air pollution levels to hit dangerous high – The Local

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