Interactive map shows which San Diego areas have the worst air quality

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Areas of Alpine, Borrego Springs and Warner Springs have the highest levels of ozone pollution in San Diego County, according to state data that indicate the level of air pollution in a given neighborhood.

Ozone is the main ingredient of smog, which makes it among the most widespread and significant air pollution health threats in California. Studies show it can cause lung irritation and inflammation, and even low levels of exposure can worsen existing chronic health conditions.

Data from the California Environmental Protection Agency show the average daily maximum ozone concentration in central and northern Alpine is .057 parts per million, the highest in San Diego County.

Several areas of San Bernardino, including Highland, Loma Linda and Redlands, top the statewide list with an average daily maximum of .068.

Borrego Springs and Warner Springs fall at No. 2 in the county with .055 parts per million. The measurements reflect the average 8-hour maximum during 2012 and 2013.

If the map is not displaying on your device, click here »

Ozone is created when pollutants from trucks, cars, factories and farms chemically react in the presence of sunlight. Concentrations are collected by the California Air Resources Board, which has several monitoring stations throughout the state.

CalEnviroScreen 3.0 incorporates ozone levels, as well as diesel emissions, groundwater quality, hazardous waste and pesticide levels, into one interactive tool that state officials say helps identify environmentally-disadvantaged communities.

The tool was created to prioritize funding for grants and other programs after Gov. Jerry Brown passed legislation in 2012 that required 25 percent of cap-and-trade auction proceeds to go to projects located in communities particularly vulnerable to pollution and its effects.

According to state research, ozone levels are typically highest in the afternoon and on hot days. Children are the most sensitive to ozone exposure, but it can also affect the elderly and people who spend a lot of time outdoors.

There are different ways of measuring the rate of asthma in California, including the number of people living with asthma, the number of emergency room visits for asthma symptoms and asthma-related deaths.

The asthma data in the map represent the number of emergency room visits for asthma symptoms per 10,000 people from 2011 through 2013. That is currently the best available way to compare differences in asthma prevalence across California at the census tract level. Other methods include asthma-related deaths and the number of people living with asthma.

via Interactive map shows which San Diego areas have the worst air quality – The San Diego Union-Tribune

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London reaches legal air pollution limit just one month into the new year

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Timing is a significant improvement, due in part to mayor’s measures, but campaigners say national government must ‘get a grip’ on toxic air

Air pollution in London has reached the legal limit for the whole of 2018 less than a month into the year, prompting calls for the government to “get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting health”.

Toxic air has been at illegal levels in the capital and most urban areas in the UK since 2010 and results in around 40,000 early deaths a year.

The date of this year’s reaching of the limit, at Brixton Road in Lambeth, is actually a significant improvement on previous years: for the last decade air pollution has reached illegal levels no later than six days into the year.

The improvement is partly the result of action taken by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who introduced cleaner buses on routes through pollution blackspots and charges to deter dirty vehicles from central London. “But I have one hand tied behind my back due to government policies and inaction,” he told the Guardian.

Clean air plans put forward by ministers have already twice been declared illegal at the high court for failing to cut air pollution in the “shortest time possible”, as EU law requires. The government is now awaiting the verdict in a third case brought by environmental lawyers ClientEarth, after a hearing earlier in January.

“Londoners are still breathing filthy air on a daily basis,” said Simon Alcock at ClientEarth. “There’s much more to do. But the mayor can’t solve this problem alone. Ministers have to get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting our health by committing to real action to tackle our toxic air.”

Modern air pollution records for London began 18 years ago and Khan said this is the first time London went almost a month before reaching the legal limits: “This shows the measures we have already taken in the capital are beginning to take effect. I am using all the powers I have to their fullest extent to tackle this health crisis. But it’s about time the government recognised the true scale of this issue.”

The law requires that the hourly measurement of toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) must not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) more than 18 times in a whole year. But Brixton Road has now recorded 18 breaches and is expected to break the limit in the next day or two.

Over the year, the most polluted places have vastly exceeded this in the past. In 2016 Putney high street broke the hourly limit more than 1,200 times. Khan’s cleaner bus plan is now in place in both Brixton and Putney.

Air quality has also improved on Oxford Street, which broke the annual limit in just five days in 2015. But following changes to bus routes, there have been no breaches so far in 2018. Initial hourly readings are checked and very occasionally recalibration means a result is corrected to a level below the legal limit, but even if this happens Brixton Road is certain to break the annual limit very soon.

The government’s own analysis shows charging zones to deter dirty cars from urban centres are by far the most effective policy, but ministers have told councils they should only be the option of last resort. The government has already spent £370,000 of taxpayers’ money in failed attempts to fight lawsuits aimed at forcing stronger action.

Nitrogen dioxide pollution, mostly produced by diesel vehicles, has been illegally high in most urban parts of Britain since 2010. The government’s latest plan, produced in July, was condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors.

Particulate pollution is also a serious health hazard and, while levels are generally under existing legal limits, research released in October showed every person in the capital is breathing air that exceeds World Health Organisation guidelines.

Khan is introducing a wide ultra-low emissions zone in London in 2019 and planning to limit the use of wood-burning stoves in future. “The government also urgently needs to set out plans for a vehicle scrappage scheme that removes the filthiest cars off our roads,” he said.

“We need clean air action and that is what the government are delivering,” environment minister Thérèse Coffey told parliament last Thursday: “The government will continue to improve air quality, supported by the new comprehensive clean air strategy that we are developing and will publish later this year. We have already put in place a £3.5bn plan to improve air quality, with a particular focus on transport.” Coffey is meeting EU environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella, to discuss the UK’s illegal pollution on Tuesday.

Oliver Hayes, at Friends of the Earth, said: “The frequency and severity of these pollution spikes shows we’ve still got a long way to go in cleaning up our air. It’s high time we reimagined our cities so that people – not cars – come first. Our health, our sense of community, and our wellbeing depend on it.”

In September, the UN’s special rapporteur on pollution said the government was “flouting” its duty to protect the lives and health of its citizens and the problem was declared a public health emergency by a cross-party committee of MPs in April 2016.

via London reaches legal air pollution limit just one month into the new year | UK news | The Guardian

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London schools to be alerted on high air pollution days

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Schools in London will receive an alert every time air pollution in the capital is set to pose an acute risk to health as part of a renewed push to highlight the scale of the capital’s toxic pollution crisis.

Air pollution causes 40,000-50,000 early deaths a year in the UK – more than 9,000 in London – and the young are particularly vulnerable.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, already sends alerts to train stations and bus stops when pollution levels reach dangerous levels, advising vulnerable groups including children and the elderly to take precautionary measures.

London air pollution live data – where will be first to break legal limits in 2018?
Read more
Next week the system is to be extended to include schools, and GPs’ surgeries and care homes will be included “in the near future”.

Khan said: “I want more Londoners to engage with air quality issues so I am sure the new guidance that I have published today will encourage people to learn more about the air they breathe and what they can do to improve it.”

The scale of London’s air pollution crisis was laid bare last year with new figures showing that every person in the capital is breathing air that exceeds global guidelines for one of the most dangerous toxic particles.

The findings, described as “sickening” by Khan, have serious health implications – especially for children – with both short- and long-term exposure to these particulates increasing the likelihood of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Health experts say young people exposed to these toxic pollutants are more likely to grow up with reduced lung function and to develop asthma.

The decision to send alerts to schools comes as environment minister Thérèse Coffey is due in Brussels on Tuesday to explain to the European commission why the UK still breaches legal air pollution limits.

Britain is one of the five member states to have received a “final warning” from the commission after persistently surpassing limits for nitrogen dioxide levels.

Khan has written to the EU environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella, who will meet Coffey on Tuesday to set out his efforts to tackle air pollution and what the government needs to do.

The government was back in the UK courts last week to defend their current air pollution plans which have previously been ruled so poor that they are illegal.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs said air pollution “has improved significantly since 2010, but we recognise there is more to do, which is why we have put in place a £3.5bn plan to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions.”

via London schools to be alerted on high air pollution days | Environment | The Guardian

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CRACOVIA X RESPRO® MASKS

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Respro® Masks are proud sponsors of Kraków football club MKS CRACOVIA .

CRACOVIA X RESPRO®

The new MKS Cracovia mask in club colours red and white.

Watch Polish first league football club MKS Cracovia wearing their custom made pollution masks during training.

With special thanks to Respro® Poland.

 

 

For more information in Polish, visit respro.com.pl

See pictures of the Polish team training on Pinterest and Facebook.

 

 

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Italian cities top smog index as EU ministers face air pollution grilling

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Pressure has increased on Italy’s environment minister ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels after the World Health Organisation revealed that three Italian cities are the worst in Europe in terms of air pollution and smog.

Turin, Milan and Naples top the list of European cities when it comes to dangerous particulate matter, according to a WHO report that draws on data recorded between 2013 and 2016.

Northern Italy’s Turin, famous for being home to carmaker Fiat and the filming location for classic film The Italian Job, scored worst for particulate matter (pm10) after an average annual concentration of 39 microgrammes per cubic metre (μg/m) was recorded.

Fellow northern powerhouse Milan and southern metropolis Naples took second and third places, with 37 and 35 μg/m, respectively.

All three significantly exceed the 20 μg/m limit the WHO says is the very maximum that can be tolerated in order to “safeguard human health”.

Environmental group Legambiente highlighted the bad performance of the three cities in its own report, by extrapolating data that was compiled by the UN’s health agency

Expert Andrea Minutolo explained that the data proved that “new infringement procedures” should be launched against Italy, as current EU legal action against Rome refers to a previous time period and does not take into account the country’s continuing struggles to combat pollution.

Time to face the music

That wish could indeed by granted soon as EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella has summoned nine environment ministers to Brussels this week to explain why their countries are still flouting the bloc’s air pollution laws.

Italy’s Gian Luca Galletti, who has been minister since 2014, will be joined at Tuesday’s meeting (30 January) by his German, French, Spanish, British, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovakian counterparts.

Commissioner Vella has made it clear that this is somewhat of a last chance saloon for the nine countries, warning in a blogpost that failure to provide sufficient answers could result in new court action being launched against some or all of the member states.

Green activists were puzzled why Vella did not request the presence of serial pollution offenders Bulgaria and Poland but sources have confirmed that member states with actual chances of avoiding fresh legal action were to ones to receive invitations.

Poland recently convinced Bulgaria, which is the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, to join it in launching a court challenge against Brussels’ latest attempt to curb toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

Warsaw was, however, unsuccessful in convincing the Czech Republic to join the case and minister Richard Brabec insisted that “we are convinced there is no hope for the suit to succeed”.

via Italian cities top smog index as EU ministers face air pollution grilling – EURACTIV.com

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Air pollution linked to irregular menstrual cycles

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

The air your teenage daughter breathes may be causing irregular menstrual cycles. Well documented negative health effects from air pollution exposure include infertility, metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome. This study is the first to show that exposure to air pollution among teen girls (ages 14-18) is associated with slightly increased chances of menstrual irregularity and longer time to achieve such regularity in high school and early adulthood.

 

The air your teenage daughter breathes may be causing irregular menstrual cycles. Well documented negative health effects from air pollution exposure include infertility, metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome. This study is the first to show that exposure to air pollution among teen girls (ages 14-18) is associated with slightly increased chances of menstrual irregularity and longer time to achieve such regularity in high school and early adulthood.

“While air pollution exposures have been linked to cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, this study suggests there may be other systems, such as the reproductive endocrine system, that are affected as well,” said corresponding author Shruthi Mahalingaiah, MD, MS, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and a physician in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Medical Center.

The menstrual cycle is responsive to hormonal regulation. Particulate matter air pollution has demonstrated hormonal activity. However, it was not known if air pollution was associated with menstrual cycle regularity, until now.

The researchers used health and location data gathered in the Nurses’ Health Study 2 plus air pollution exposure metrics from the EPA air quality monitoring system to understand a participants’ exposure during a particular time window. They found exposure to air pollution in during high school was correlated with menstrual cycle irregularity.

“Implications on human disease may come through reducing emissions on a global and individual level,” said Mahalingaiah.

The findings appear in the journal Human Reproduction.

via Air pollution linked to irregular menstrual cycles — ScienceDaily

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Bangkok residents brace for worse pollution

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Bangkok’s air pollution which exceeds health safety levels has improved but it could worsen at the end of next month, according to the Department of Pollution Control (DPC).

The pollution in the capital has improved after getting worse over the past seven days due to still and stagnant air, said Thaloengsak Phetsuwan, the department’s director of Air Quality and Noise Management Bureau.

The amount of fine particulates no more than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, known as PM2.5, had exceeded the safety limit of 50 microgrammes per cubic metre of air (50µg/m3) over the past week, he said.

These stagnant conditions normally occurred for a short period in the capital during the seasonal transition from winter to summer, when there was little or no wind.

This allowed pollution, mainly from vehicles, to accumulate in the air.

It had the appearance of white or white-brown mist, he said.

However, the situation returned to normal Thursday due to some rainfall, he said.

The Bangkok skyline was obscured by smog on Thursday. The Department of Pollution Control reported that safe air quality levels had returned to most parts of Bangkok later in the day, thanks to scattered showers.

The PM2.5 level dropped to below 50µg/m3 in every location where air quality was measured, except on Intarapitak Road in Thon Buri district which the hazardous pollution was measured at 57 microgrammes.

In Bangkok the department took daily air quality measurements, usually at five locations.

Mr Thaloengsak said that as the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) has forecast that temperatures will drop again later this month, the pollution may return.

Pollution problems in Bangkok could be prevalent until the end of February, Mr Thaloengsak said.

When the level of fine particulates breaches the safe ceiling, people experience throat irritation and breathing difficulties.

The tissue of organs in the respiratory system could be destroyed by long exposure to unsafe air, Mr Thaloengsak said.

He advised people to limit outdoor activities and wear face masks.

On Thursday the TMD warned of heavy rain in the lower part of the northern region, northeastern provinces, the Central Plains and Greater Bangkok until Sunday.

A drop in temperature will then follow throughout next week and some areas will experience strong winds, the weather office said.

Temperatures will plunge by 6C-8C over the period, the department says.

Meanwhile, environmental activists called on the DPC to include PM2.5 in its regular air quality evaluation for the sake of people’s health.

Residents wear face masks as they walk around Bangkok’s Victory Monument Thursday.

Tara Buakamsri, the Thailand country director for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said there is a big loophole in the process for evaluating air quality in the country because PM2.5, which is important to air quality internationally, has yet to be included in the department’s regular evaluation. The department normally uses the level PM10 level for its evaluation and public alerts.

He said that by not including the PM2.5 factor, the department is failing to inform the public of important information.

Bangkok on Wednesday was dominated by heavy smog all day, Mr Tara said.

via Bangkok residents brace for worse pollution | Bangkok Post: news

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Bangkok air pollution at harmful levels

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Bangkok’s air pollution exceeded health safety levels on five of the last eight days, brought on by still and stagnant air, the Pollution Control Department reported on Thursday.

The amount of fine particulates up to 2.5 micrometres in diameter had exceeded the safety limit of 50 microgrammes per cubic metre of air these five days, Thaloengsak Phetsuwan, air and noise quality director of the department, said.

These stagnant conditions normally occurred for a short period in the capital during the seasonal transition from winter to summer, when there was little or no wind. This allowed pollution, mainly from vehicles, to accumulate in the air. It had the appearance of white or white-brown mist, he said.

In Bangkok the department took daily air quality measurements at five locations. Readings on Thursday showed the air was hazardous on Intarapitak Road in Thon Buri district, at 57 microgrammes.

When the level of fine particulates breaches the safe ceiling, people experience throat irritation and breathing difficulties. The tissue of organs in the respiratory system could be destroyed by long exposure to the unsafe air, Mr Thaloengsak said. He advised people to limit outdoor activities and wear a face mask.

via Bangkok air pollution at harmful levels | Bangkok Post: news

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