How dangerous is the air where you live? UK’s most polluted towns and cities revealed

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

Research suggests the air in 44 out of 51 British towns and cities has failed pollution tests – posing a risk to human health.

Millions of people in the UK are inhaling air considered too dangerous to breathe by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a report has revealed.

WHO’s air quality database showed 44 out of 51 British towns and cities had failed its tests for fine sooty particles smaller than 2.5 microns across.

The particles, known as PM2.5s, have been linked to causing heart disease and premature death and they should not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air, according to the organisation.

But a significant number of places exceeded the amount required to keep air safe.

Dr Toby Hillman, one of the report’s authors from the Royal College of Physicians, said: “There isn’t a safe limit for the amount of pollution that’s been defined as yet and we know the effects of poor air quality run from cradle to grave; it’s a lifetime threat to human health.

“This is a really direct and tangible impact on UK health from the drivers of climate change, and taking action on air quality should be a priority.”

:: Here is a list of the worst places in the UK for air quality according to average annual PM2.5 numbers (in micrograms):

Glasgow – 16

Scunthorpe – 16

Eastbourne – 15

Leeds – 15

London – 15

Salford – 15

Southampton – 15

Armagh – 14

Birmingham – 14

Cardiff – 14

Chepstow – 14

Gibraltar – 14

Oxford – 14

Port Talbot – 14

Portsmouth – 14

Stanford-le-Hope – 14

Stoke-on-Trent – 14

Thurrock – 14

Warrington – 14

Bristol – 13

Leamington Spa – 13

Manchester – 13

Newport – 13

Norwich – 13

Wigan – 13

Belfast – 12

Carlisle – 12

Hull – 12

Liverpool – 12

Nottingham – 12

Plymouth – 12

Prestonpans – 12

Swansea – 12

York – 12

Birkenhead – 11

Brighton – 11

Londonderry – 11

Middlesbrough – 11

Saltash – 11

Southend-on-Sea – 11

Chesterfield – 10

Newcastle upon Tyne – 10

Reading – 10

Stockton-on-Tees – 10

Wrexham – 10

Aberdeen – 9

Bournemouth – 9

Grangemouth – 9

Sunderland – 9

Edinburgh – 8

Inverness – 6

Source: How dangerous is the air where you live? UK’s most polluted towns and cities revealed

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Mongolia’s deadly air pollution chokes the ‘Land of Eternal Blue Sky’

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

A combination of extreme winter temperatures, poor infrastructure and urban sprawl in the Mongolian capital has created one of the worst cases of air pollution in the world

At the end of a bright autumn day in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, it is -12 degrees. As the evening falls, thousands of chimneys in the city begin to release thick and hot smoke, changing the colour of the sky to a dusty pink.

Standing at the top of a hill on the outskirts of the city, Bayar Deegi (46), a successful lawyer-turned-inventor, is keen to show how the black smog swallows his home town. Thousands of households will have to burn low-quality coal until the morning to cope with the temperatures, which will to drop to -15 degrees at night.

Even with an air pollution mask, the combination of the cold and smoke is difficult to bear. The toxic fumes dance in the air with the wind and create a grey hue around the street lamps.

“It’s still the warm season, so the cold and air pollution aren’t too bad at the moment,” Deegi says, his face betraying no hint of sarcasm. “You should come back in January to see it at its worst – when people living in these poor neighbourhoods don’t have anywhere to dispose of the ash and leave it in the streets. The ash flies with the wind. That’s when Ulaanbaatar turns into a massive ashtray.”

Ulaanbaatar, which was founded in the 17th century as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, literally means “The Red Hero” in the Mongolian language, a reference to country’s Soviet past. However, these days, many residents refer to it as Kharbaatar, meaning “The Black Hero” during the winter months due to the alarming levels of air pollution. Deegi believes this pollution is to blame for the deaths of many people who were dear to him.

“My sister-in-law died from lung cancer a year ago,” he said, his voice unable to hide his grief. “She lived only three months after the diagnosis.”

“My sister’s father-in-law also recently died from lung cancer. Then, a year or two ago, her friend died from lung cancer,” he said. “These were all healthy people. They didn’t drink or smoke. They didn’t have bad habits. They only lived in Ulaanbaatar.”

These days, everyone who lives in the capital knows someone who has lost their lives to lung diseases, Deegi adds.

Urban migration

Ulaanbaatar is the world’s coldest capital, experiencing temperatures as low as -40 degrees in the winter months. Half of Mongolia’s three million people live in the capital, as the migration from rural to urban areas has soared since the USSR dissolved in the 1990s.

Although the Mongolian economy grew at a fast pace afterwards and this landlocked nation emerged as a vibrant democracy, a third of country’s population still live below the poverty line.

Almost 40 per cent of Mongolia’s population is dependent on animal husbandry and rain-fed agriculture for its livelihood. However, according to the 2014 Climate Change Risk Index, Mongolia is the eighth most vulnerable country in the world to the impacts of extreme weather: climate change gradually turns winter conditions harsher, thus making it almost impossible for many pastoral communities to survive.

Every year thousands of nomadic herders lose their animals to a natural disaster unique to Mongolia known as dzud. In 2016 more than one million animals were killed by dzud, forcing the herders to seek new opportunities in the capital.

The combination of climate change, peaking population, limited infrastructure and heavy dependence on coals for up to eight months of the year have created the one of the worst cases of air pollution in the world.

Levels of particulate matter in the air have risen to almost 80 times the World Health Organisation recommended safety level – and to five times worse thanks to the level of heavily-polluted Beijing.

Natural beauties

Mongolia has been described as the “Land of the Eternal Blue Sky”. This East Asian nation, sandwiched between Russia and China, boasts world-famous natural beauties such as vast steppes, deserts, mountains and taiga. However, in many of Ulaanbaatar’s shanty towns, the harsh sunlight glistens not on pristine rivers or lakes, but plastic bottles and broken glass on the ground.

Byamba Enkhbat, a 39-year-old father of three and a former nomadic herder, lives in such a neighbourhood. The winter of 2007 was a particularly harsh one for many nomadic families such as Enkhbat’s who lived near the Khosvgol Lake in the northern part of the country, close to the Russia border. The dzud of that year reduced Enkhat’s family from being well-off owners of more than 100 goats and sheep to having nothing.

“First the weak ones started to die and we hoped the rest would survive, but they didn’t,” Enkhbat says. “There was too much snow, so they couldn’t eat. They got skinnier by day and died one after the other. By the time the winter was over, we had lost all our animals.”

After losing his livelihood, Enkhbat had no choice but to relocate his family to the capital, where they live in a traditional nomadic yurt known as a “ger” in Mongolian, as they cannot afford to live in an apartment. Enkhbat now works as a manual labourer in a block factory, while his wife is a janitor at a school.

Both are on the Mongolian minimum wage of 240,000 Mongolian Togrogs (€83) a month.

There are more than 800,000 people who, like Enkhbat, live in the poor outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, colloquially referred as “ger districts”.

With an estimated 25-40 per cent of Mongolia’s three million people still leading a pastoral and nomadic life, this vast country is the least densely populated nation- state in the world . While the smoke coming from a lone ger or two in the countryside during deep winter might be insignificant, Ulaanbaatar cannot carry the burden of thousands – when the migration from the countryside to the capital continues at a rapid rate.

‘It’s unbearable’

Oyuntsetseg Yanjin, a 40-year-old single mother of two daughters, moved to the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar only a month ago from the countryside, also from the Khosvgol Lake region.

Yanjin lost her animals, 90 sheep and goats, to the dzud in 2000. However, as a struggling single mother, she didn’t have the means to immediately move to the city. Instead, she and her daughters spent many years living with her relatives without a source of income and dreamed of coming to the city.

“My older daughter was accepted by an engineering faculty in Ulaanbaatar this year,” she said, beaming with pride. The family finally came to Ulaanbaatar after many uncomfortable years living with others and Yanjin found a job as a dishwasher to support her daughters’ education. Although this was the moment they had waited for for a long time, Yanjin is deeply disappointed in city life, even though she hasn’t even lived through the worst months of air pollution.

“Life is not that great in the city,” she says, sitting on the ground in her ger and shaking her head. “The smoke is just too much. It’s unbearable. I was very healthy living in the countryside – although it’s much colder there. Since we came to Ulaanbaatar, we have all been ill constantly. I spent half of my salary on medicine.”

“As soon as my daughters graduate, I am going back to the countryside. I’ll find a way to survive. I cannot live like this here. I feel very depressed about the smoke,” she adds.

“Poverty is hierarchical, smog is democratic,” prominent sociologist Ulrich Beck famously said in 1992, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Fast forward to 2017, and many of the ger district residents of Ulaanbaatar would disagree with Beck. The smog not only makes the life much harsher for the Mongolian urban poor, but also perpetuates the cycle of poverty for many families by preventing them from making the most of the opportunities available to them. In the ger districts, access to education epitomises this.

Oyunchimeg (8) has to walk two hours a day to get to her school and back. The colder morning and early evening hours, which is when the intensity of smog is often the highest in the ger districts, coincides with the hours thousands of children such as Oyunchimeg walk to the school.

“When it’s winter and smoky, I hate walking,” she says. “If the cold or smog is too bad, some days I skip the school.”

“Sometimes we cannot even see the traffic lights. We cannot tell if it’s green or red,” she added.

“Small children – or anyone who is shorter than 1.5 meters, really – experience the worst form of air pollution,” Deegi says. “In deep winter, they inhale all the ashes rising from the ground.”

Like thousands of peri-urban families, Oyunchimeg’s family burns coal at home. So for Oyunchimeg, there is no respite – whether at home or going to school, she breathes heavily polluted air.

Healthcare costs

According to the research of the Ger Community Mapping Centre, an urban development NGO that uses data and mapping techniques to highlight the issues of ger districts, the number of schools in the these districts is severely inadequate for the number of residents. With the lack of access to public transportation, a peri-urban child might end up spending several hours a day just walking to the school.

Furthermore, as most gers don’t have access to water resources, families have to bring water from wells. Since fetching water is traditionally a child’s job in Mongolia, this maximises children’s contact with the polluted air, which also contaminates the water resources that families use.

Even though air pollution is much more prominent in the lives of the urban poor, Mongolian politicians living in cleaner districts are well aware of the issue. In an effort to address it, the government launched a competition in 2014 to find innovative solutions.

Bayar Deegi won the competition with his invention of a lighter to reduce coal smoke by 80 per cent. Motivated by his passion to innovate and reduce the impacts of air pollution on his fellow residents, Deegi was occupied with this product any moment he was not practising law, and he spent $200,000 developing it using his own savings.

The government had promised to grant $2 million to the winner of the competition to develop the product. Yet, soon after winning, Deegi received a letter from an official with an apology, stating that the government wouldn’t be able to provide the promised $2 million.

“I just don’t understand,” he says, showing the letter to The Irish Times. “My product could save millions of dollars in healthcare costs. It could save many lives and provide a better future for children.”

According to the World Bank, if the air pollution in Ulaanbaatar was reduced by 50 per cent, the country would save $19 million to $38 million in healthcare costs. However, Deegi still doesn’t think the government prioritises this pressing issue as much as it should.

“If we don’t curb the air pollution,” he says, “We’ll soon have to spend all our money building hospitals specially for treating lung diseases.”

Source: Mongolia’s deadly air pollution chokes the ‘Land of Eternal Blue Sky’

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Pollutant emitted by forest fire causes DNA damage and lung cell death

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

When exposed in a laboratory to pollution levels comparable to those found in the atmosphere of the Amazon region during the forest and crop burning season, human lung cells suffer severe DNA damage and stop dividing. After 72 hours of exposure, over 30 percent of the cultured cells are dead. The main culprit appears to be retene, a chemical compound that belongs to the class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These results have been reported by a group of Brazilian researchers in the journal Scientific Reports.

“We found no information on the toxicity of retene in the scientific literature. I hope our findings serve as an incentive for further study and for environmental concentrations of retene to be regulated by health organizations,” said Nilmara de Oliveira Alves Brito, first author of the article.

“When I was doing my master’s research at UFRN, I noticed that exposure of lung cells to this particulate matter emitted by biomass burning led to mutations in lung cell DNA,” said Alves Brito. “This more recent study set out to investigate the mechanisms by which this happens.”

Methodology

The first step, she explained, consisted of determining the concentration of pollutants to be used in the lab experiments in order to mimic the exposure suffered by people who live in areas of intensely changing land use and plant cover known as the “deforestation arc”—500,000 square kilometers extending westward from eastern and southern Pará into Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Acre.

Using mathematical models, the researchers calculated the human lung’s capacity to inhale particulate matter at the height of the burning season and the percentage of pollutants that is deposited in lung cells. “Based on this theoretical mass, we determined the concentration levels to be tested using cultured cells,” Alves Brito said.

The pollutants used in vitro were collected in a natural area near Porto Velho, Rondônia during the burning season, which peaks in September and October.

“The samples were collected using a device that draws in air and deposits fine particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers in a filter. We were interested in studying these very fine particles because they’re small enough to penetrate the alveoli in the lungs,” Alves Brito said.

According to Professor Paulo Artaxo of the University of São Paulo, the filters were frozen shortly after the particulate matter was collected because the organic compounds found in the pollution plume are highly volatile. “This material was shipped to São Paulo and diluted in a nutritive solution, which was then applied to the cell cultures,” he said. “The proportion of pollutants used was the same as that found in the air inhaled by the inhabitants of Porto Velho.”

The cultured cells treated with the solution were compared with a group of control cells, which received only the solvent used to extract pollutants from the filters. The aim was to confirm that any adverse effects observed were caused by the particulate matter and not by the solvent.

Immediate effect

In the very first moments of exposure, the lung cells began producing large amounts of pro-inflammatory molecules. Inflammation was followed by an increase in the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), substances that cause oxidative stress. Large amounts of ROS cause damage to cellular structures.

“To understand the pathways that were inducing oxidative stress, we analyzed the cell cycle and found that it was impaired by an increase in the expression of proteins such as P53 and P21. The cells stopped replicating, which suggested that DNA damage was occurring,” Alves Brito said.

The researchers performed specific tests to confirm genetic damage. Based on their observation of increased expression of the protein LC3 and other specific markers, they also found that the cells entered a process of autophagy whereby they degraded their own internal structures.

“All this damage was observed in only 24 hours of exposure,” Alves Brito said. “As time passed, the genetic damage increased, and the cells entered a process of apoptosis and necrosis.” Whereas only 2 percent of control cells had died from necrosis after 72 hours, in the culture treated with pollutants, cell mortality reached 33 percent.

“Not all the cells die, but the survivors suffer DNA damage, which may predispose them to the development of cancer in future,” Alves Brito said.

Before beginning the experiment with cultured cells, Alves Brito and collaborators completed an analysis of the substances present in the particulate matter collected in the Amazon region. They identified the presence of several PAHs, many of which are known to be carcinogenic. The results of this analysis were published in 2015 in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

“We observed that the most abundant PAH was retene,” Alves Brito said. “We therefore decided to repeat the experiment with the cells using this substance in isolation but at the same concentration as that found in the particulate matter. We observed that retene alone also induced DNA damage and cell death.”

According to Artaxo, the death of large numbers of lung cells in a living organism can lead to breathing problems and even severe diseases such as pulmonary emphysema.

“In a previous study, we showed that the decline in deforestation from 27,000 km2 in 2004 to 4,000 km2 in 2012 avoided the death of at least 1,700 people from diseases associated with pollution,” he said. “Curiously enough, most of these deaths wouldn’t have occurred in the Amazon but in the South of Brazil because of the long-distance transportation of pollutants and also because of the region’s higher population density.”

Global relevance

Although retene is not emitted by the burning of fossil fuels, the main source of pollution in Brazil’s urban areas, the researchers say that this compound can be found in the atmosphere in São Paulo and other cities, probably owing to the burning of sugarcane and other kinds of biomass on nearby farms.

In the article, the researchers note that while most research on exposure to air pollution focuses on the role of fossil fuels in atmospheric pollution, some 3 billion people worldwide are exposed to air pollution from biomass burning, including the use of wood or coal as fuel in cooking stoves or home heating, as well as from deforestation and agricultural practices. Moreover, the authors add, some 7 million deaths worldwide, or one in every eight deaths, result from exposure to air pollution, according to a report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012.

“The combination of forest fires and human occupation has turned biomass burning into a serious threat to public health. The majority of forest fires occur in the deforestation arc, directly impacting over 10 million people in the area. Many studies have identified severe effects on human health, such as increased incidence of asthma, morbidity and mortality, mainly in the most vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly,” the authors note.

Source: Pollutant emitted by forest fire causes DNA damage and lung cell death

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Sulfur dioxide pollution tied to degraded sperm quality

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

Men’s sperm counts have plummeted by up to 60% over the last 40 years in Western countries and by nearly 30% since 2001 in China. Experts lack firm answers regarding the cause of the sperm deficit but suspect that behaviors such as smoking or exposures to hormone-disrupting compounds in plastics or pesticides are to blame. A handful of papers have questioned whether air pollution could also affect semen quality. Now, a new study links sulfur dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels to depressed sperm count and concentration in Chinese men (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b03289).

“Infertility is a global public health issue affecting at least 50 million couples worldwide,” says Yuewei Liu, an environmental epidemiologist at Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control & Prevention. Data suggest that poor semen quality accounts for 90% of male infertility. Impaired semen clearly interferes with conception, but it is also often an indicator of other health problems.

While most research has focused on risky behaviors and commercial chemicals as potential causes, experts have recently suggested that air pollutants might damage sperm quality. However, studies on air pollution and semen quality have been inconsistent due to inaccurate measures of an individual’s exposure to pollutants and insufficient sample sizes.

So Liu and his team decided to study semen samples collected from 1,759 men in Wuhan, China. They had all visited Tongji Hospital from 2013 to 2015 seeking help to conceive a child with their partners. The researchers measured sperm concentration, total sperm, and total motile sperm in each sample, controlling for factors that might affect semen quality such as age and smoking. Then the scientists drew on government data from nine air quality monitoring stations in Wuhan—a transportation hub and manufacturing powerhouse—to estimate exposure to air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone. Liu employed a model that analyzed the location of the monitoring stations in relationship to each man’s home to predict individual daily pollutant exposures. Because human sperm develops over 90 days, the researchers calculated pollution exposures for the 90 days prior to semen collection so they could look at key periods of sperm development.

When Liu and the team used a statistical test to rate semen quality against increasing air pollution, they found no impact from NO2, CO or O3. However, for each 10 µg/m3 increase in SO2 exposure during the first stage of sperm development, sperm concentration dropped by 6.5%, total sperm count by 11.3%, and total motile sperm by 13.2%, Liu says. Levels of SO2 during the later stages of sperm development did not appear to impact sperm quality. The annual mean SO2 concentrations in Wuhan during the study period ranged from a high of 33 µg/m3 in 2013 to 18 µg/m3 in 2015. In the U.S., annual mean SO2 concentration was less than 5 µg/m3 in 2013.

“Our results indicate for the first time that SO2 exposure may lower semen quality by affecting the earliest stage of sperm development, 70 to 90 days before ejaculation,” Liu says. He speculates that SO2 could impair sperm by triggering oxidative stress and damage to DNA. “Given the limited evidence from epidemiological and in vivo studies, further studies are needed to confirm the association of NO2, CO and O3 with semen quality,” Liu adds. He recommends caution in generalizing the findings to other populations since the men were all from one city in China.

“Even though the study was limited to one city, this paper adds evidence to the existing literature showing a downward trend in sperm concentration and count with increasing exposure to air pollution,” says Bénédicte Jacquemin, an epidemiologist at the health research institute ISGlobal in Barcelona. The study’s findings are more applicable to countries such as China and India where SO2 pollution is severe, she notes. “Exposure to SO2 might not be the cause of decline in sperm quality in North America and Europe, as regulations have lowered SO2 levels for a couple of decades now.”

Source: Sulfur dioxide pollution tied to degraded sperm quality | Chemical & Engineering News

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Flouting the law aggravating air pollution, killing thousands 

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

The winter is coming and once more days of choking smog are awaiting city dwellers in metropolises of Iran.

A great deal of air pollution in Tehran and other big cities is blamed on a phenomenon called inversion.

Inversions occur during the winter months when normal atmospheric conditions (cool air above, warm air below) become inverted. Inversions trap a dense layer of cold air under a layer of warm air. The warm layer acts much like a lid, trapping pollutants in the cold air near the earth.

Wintertime inversions are a common event in metropolises. Extended inversions can lead to the high levels of fine particles (PM2.5). These high pollutant levels raise significant health and air quality issues, especially on days when the pollutant concentrations exceed the air quality indices.

One of the most important things impacted by an inversion layer is smog. This is the brownish-gray haze that covers many of the world’s largest cities and is a result of dust, auto exhaust, and industrial manufacturing.

Deaths linked with unhealthy environment 

Tehraners as well as many other citizens living in cities of Tabriz, Ahwaz, and Isfahan feel suffocated by the choking smog at the onset of cold seasons.

An estimated 12.6 million people died as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment in 2012 – nearly 1 in 4 of total global deaths, according to estimates from World Health Organization (WHO) published in March 2016.

In Iran around 33,000 people die each year because they are exposed to unhealthy environment.

As much as 24 percent of global diseases are caused by environmental exposures. Environmental risk factors, such as air, water and soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation, contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries.

In terms of air pollution according to another report released by WHO, in 2012 around 7 million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure. As per another report, more than 5.5 million people worldwide are dying prematurely every year as a result of air pollution making it the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide. The data was compiled as part of the Global Burden of Disease project.

Since 2015, Iran’s Ministry of Health has been calculating the number of deaths linked to air pollution. Based on the figures given by Abbas Shahsavani, a ministry representative who is in charge of air pollution committee, some 12,798 deaths in 25 cities of Iran with a population of 30 million are attributed to air pollution in 2015.

Shahsavani further said that in Tehran alone some 4,810 deaths occurred in 2016 are attributed to air pollution. That was while based on WHO guidelines the PM2.5 must stand at 10 micrograms per cubic meter air annually in Iran it stands at 31.1 micrograms per cubic meter air which is pretty high.

What contributes to air pollution?

Most of the air pollution results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, natural gas, and gasoline to produce electricity and power the vehicles.

After years of suffering highly polluted autumn and winter it is a common knowledge to citizens that vehicles, most significantly clunkers including taxis, buses, and trucks, and also carburetor motorcycles, in addition to power plants, factories, and mines established in close proximity of the cities are the main pollution sources in the country.

It is not lack of knowledge or even inadequate laws that has contributed to such high levels of air pollution.

The clean air bill which turned into a law last October has mandated some 14 responsible organizations and ministries including ministries of oil, interior, culture, industry, intelligence, transport, science, economic affairs, education, justice, presidential directorate executive affairs, central bank, management and planning organization, and Department of Environment to regulate pollutant industries and other factors contributing to air pollution.

What is actually impeding substantial progress in abating air pollution is budget deficiency, lack of professional integrity, mismanagement, and shortsighted and in some cases misguided policies seeking short term benefits or results and on top of that breaking the law to the advantage of a small minority.

Substandard automobile industry 

For one, Iran’s automobile industry is failing to live up to international standards in manufacturing low-emission vehicles. Although the industry ministry and car manufacturers are legally bound to observe the law in producing clean and eco-friendly vehicles in practice they ignore or fail to meet the standards.

As explained by Mehdi Nikdar, head of the transport fleet and fuel management headquarters affiliated with the transport ministry, all car manufacturers are obligated to scrap a car in exchange for each car they produce.

However, despite the fact that some 1.4 million cars are being produced domestically per annum the manufacturers refuse to follow the law and that’s why only 350,000 cars were scrapped last year.

“Some 2 million cars were scrapped over the past 10 years, but the remaining 1.2 million clunkers which will certainly increase every year will also take another 10 year to be scrapped which is too long,” Nikdar regretted.

Only those who import cars are actually scrapping clunkers; car importers are required to scrap 400,000 clunkers for importing 75,000 cars but once the government decides to temporarily reduce or halt car import the number of cars being scrapped will significantly decrease, and that’s where the problem lies, Nikdar added.

Vehicles are recognized as the preliminary culprits of air pollution. There are adequate laws authorizing the responsible organizations to track down pollutant vehicles and either fix them or omit them. But what seems to be real problem is flouting the law by those who are after short-term results regardless of the health threats posed to the public.

Source: Flouting the law aggravating air pollution, killing thousands – Tehran Times

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Madrid reactivates anti-air pollution protocol 

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Madrid City Hall on Tuesday reactivated its anti-air pollution protocol and advised it would step up to level two of the protocol and its subsequent restrictions on traffic after levels of over 180 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic meter were measured in two monitoring stations in the Spanish capital.

It is the fifth time the protocol has been activated in under a month, coming just a week after it was de-activated.

Although Madrid experienced rainfall for the first time in 50 days on Oct. 17, warm and dry weather returned quickly to Madrid and temperatures around ten degrees centigrade above the average for the time of year and an almost total absence of wind has seen a steady buildup of nitrogen dioxide over the past five days.

The Madrid Town Hall website advises that the first stage of the protocol means that traffic on the M-30 ring road and on access roads into the capital is “limited to 70 kilometers an hour,” both in an out of the city while recommending the use of public transport.

Meanwhile the second stage, which comes into effect on Wednesday, prohibits private vehicles of non-residents from parking in the city center.

A third level would limit the use of private vehicles on certain days of the week, with cars whose licenses end in odd numbers allowed to circulate one day and those with even numbers the next, effectively halving the number of cars on the roads.

With the current weather system expected to remain in place until at least the end of the week and perhaps, longer, it is possible level three could come into use in the coming days.

At the start of October, the Madrid Town Hall confirmed that as of December this year the central Gran Via would be closed to traffic on a permanent basis with only local residents, taxis and public transport able to use the main thoroughfare.

Source: Madrid reactivates anti-air pollution protocol – Xinhua | English.news.cn

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Over 4,800 die from air pollution in Tehran in 2016

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

A total of 4,810 people died as a result of air pollution in the Iranian Capital of Tehran over a one-year period, according to Health Officials.

Air pollution in Tehran was the most dangerous in the country due to the high number of vehicles in the city, a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Health said, in comments carried by the Tasnim news agency on Monday.

The reported deaths occurred over the course of the most recent year in the Persian calendar, from March 2016 to March 2017.

Particularly in warmer months, the pollution could be so acute that all primary schools, kindergartens in the city and surrounding areas are closed.

Due to a lack of adequate public transport, many Tehran residents have no alternative but to drive a car.

In addition, petrol is both cheap at about 25 cents per litre and of low quality.

Measures were introduced in 2016 that mean drivers of individual cars are only allowed on the road every other day.

Source: Over 4,800 die from air pollution in Tehran in 2016 | The NEWS

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T-Charge: New London traffic charge comes into force 

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Respro® UK Ltd

Drivers of older, more polluting vehicles will have to pay almost twice as much to drive in central London.

Mayor Sadiq Khan’s £10 T-Charge, which mainly applies to diesel and petrol vehicles registered before 2006, has come into force.

It covers the same area as the existing congestion charge zone, bumping up the cost to £21.50 for those affected.

Opponents said the scheme would “disproportionately penalise London’s poorest drivers”.

The measure is the latest attempt by Mr Khan to improve air quality in the capital and according to the mayor’s office, will impact 34,000 motorists a month.

Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Khan said: “We’ve got a health crisis in London caused by the poor quality air.

“Roughly speaking each year more than 9,000 Londoners die prematurely because of the poor quality air – children in our city whose lungs are underdeveloped, with adults who suffer from conditions such as asthma, dementia and strokes directly caused by poor quality air.”

Earlier he said: “I refuse to be a mayor who ignores this and I am determined to take effective action to reduce the harm it does to Londoners.”

However, Simon Birkett, from the campaign group Clean Air London, said the move does not go far enough.

“The Mayor has pledged in his manifesto to restore London’s air quality to legal and safe limits and that means he has to do a whole lot more.

“We want him to take steps which are bigger, stronger an smarter.”

What is changing?

From Monday 23 October, there will be a £10 daily fee for those who drive more polluting vehicles in the congestion charging zone, on top of the existing £11.50 congestion charge.

Vehicles which do not comply with the Euro IV exhaust standard must pay the charge.

The standard defines emissions limits for cars, vans, buses, coaches and lorries. Most vehicles registered before 2006 are likely to exceed these limits.

The zone will operate between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.

Line Break

The T-Charge is the first of a series of new rates being introduced in London.

It is due to be replaced by a stricter Ultra-Low Emission Zone in 2020, although Mr Khan is consulting on bringing this forward to 2019.

This will mean diesel cars registered before September 2015 and petrol cars registered before 2006 will face a £12.50 charge.

The mayor hopes to expand the area covered for cars and vans up to the North and South Circular roads in 2021.

City authorities in Birmingham, Leeds, Southampton, Derby and Nottingham have also been advised to impose charges for some polluting diesel vehicles by 2020, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Paris, Grenoble and Lyon introduced an emission sticker scheme in January which splits vehicles into six different groups depending on their Euro Emissions standard.

Vehicles deemed too polluting – which includes petrol and diesel-powered cars registered before 1997 – are not granted a sticker, banning them from driving in the city during certain times.

Sue Terpilowski, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The introduction of the T-Charge, comes at a time when small and micro-businesses in London are already facing astonishingly high property, employment and logistics costs.

“There is a fear that this will be the final straw that closes businesses and takes jobs.”

Shaun Bailey, conservative environment spokesman at the London Assembly, said: “As an asthmatic I’m well aware of how critical an issue this is for London but we need policies that actually deliver progress.

“By boasting about a policy that so disproportionately penalises London’s poorest drivers and puts jobs at risk, the mayor is simply blowing more smoke into the capital’s already-polluted atmosphere.”

Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner Jenny Bates said: “Clearly the last thing individuals want is a new charge for moving around, but the grim reality is that nearly 10,000 early deaths are caused in London each year by the capital’s toxic air, so the Mayor is right to try to dissuade drivers bringing the oldest, dirtiest vehicles into central London.

“It’s only one small step towards clean air though – we urgently need a programme of meaningful financial assistance to help drivers of the dirtiest vehicles switch to something cleaner, and bold policies to cut traffic over all.”

Source: T-Charge: New London traffic charge comes into force – BBC News

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