Air pollution in Scotland ‘creating public health crisis’

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution in Scotland’s towns and cities is creating a public health crisis, according to environmental campaigners.

The claim by Friends of the Earth Scotland came after they analysed official data for two toxic pollutants.

The group said the latest figures showed pollution levels were continuing to break Scottish and European limits.

But ministers defended their record, saying they were working hard, along with councils, to improve air quality.

Friends of the Earth Scotland examined two key pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter – tiny particles which are pumped into the air by diesel vehicles.

It found that air pollution had worsened in several areas over the last year.

High levels of NO2 are linked to asthma and other respiratory problems.

Those sites where nitrogen dioxide levels had worsened included St John’s Road and Queensferry Road in Edinburgh, Dundee’s Whitehall Street, Falkirk’s West Bridge Street and Rutherglen’s Main Street.

Last April, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) said air pollution may have been responsible for 2,000 deaths in Scotland in a single year.

Low Emission StrategyEmilia Hanna, air pollution campaigner for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Yet again, Scotland’s streets are shown to have dangerous levels of toxic pollution which are breaking legal limits that were due to be met in 2010.

“Pollution levels in our urban areas are showing little sign of improvement with some key streets even more polluted than in 2013.

“Air pollution is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in Scotland each year and costs the NHS here up to £2bn annually.

“The time has come for our polluted air to be treated as the public health crisis it really is.”

She added: “The Scottish government is starting to show signs of action but it is painfully slow.

“A new Low Emission Strategy was promised by the end of 2014 but has yet to appear.

“The Low Emission Strategy is the crucial blueprint which should spell out when people in Scotland will finally be able to breathe clean air.

“If the Scottish government gets it right, then its Low Emission Strategy will save thousands of lives every year.”

‘Significant reductions’A Scottish government spokesman said: “The Scottish government, working in partnership with Scotland’s 32 local authorities, continues to make progress in improving our air quality.

“Data shows that significant reductions in air pollutants have been achieved since 1990 and further decreases are predicted in the future, given our knowledge of the likely impacts of planned investment.

“Although there has been excellent progress, we recognise that there is more to be done to deliver further benefits for human and environmental health where areas of poorer air quality remain.”

He added: “Following work with a wide range of partners and stakeholders, the Scottish government will launch, later this month, a consultation on a Low Emission Strategy.

“This will set out the contribution that reduced air pollution can make to delivering sustainable economic growth and enhancing the quality of life for communities across Scotland, with a focus on progress in Scottish towns and cities over the coming years.”

via BBC News – Air pollution in Scotland ‘creating public health crisis’.

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Air pollution: The big smoke

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

VISITING Oxford Street, a road teeming with tatty shops and overcrowded with people, is plainly a trial. Less plainly, levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a noxious gas, have been found to be around three times higher there than the legal limit. In 2013 the annual mean concentration of NO2 on the street was one of the highest levels found anywhere in Europe.

British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves; old industrial plants have been decommissioned. But since 2009 levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, coarse or fine particles that are linked to lung cancer and asthma, have fallen more slowly. The exact number of deaths caused by dirty air is unknown. But in 2010 a government advisory group estimated that removing man-made fine particulate matter from the atmosphere would increase life expectancy for those born in 2008 by an average of six months.

Much of the slowdown is the result of fumes from diesel cars, which were championed by successive governments because they use less fuel and thus produce less carbon dioxide than petrol cars. In 2001 only 14% of all cars ran on diesel; by 2013 the proportion had increased to 35%. (Greener “hybrid” and electric cars have increased ninefold since 2006, but account for just 0.5% of the entire fleet.) Second-hand cars are particularly noxious, but even newer ones have not been as clean as hoped. Many cars that belched out few pollutants in tests produced more when on the roads.

Government dithering has not helped. Part of the problem is that several departments are responsible for air pollution. This means nobody has taken a lead on it, complains Joan Walley, a Labour MP who chairs an environmental committee that has released a series of damning reports. And few politicians are keen to bash drivers. Talking to Britons about car ownership is “like talking to an American about hand guns”, quips one air-pollution scientist.

Some improvements have been made. In 2008 a “low-emission zone” was created in London, which targets large vans and coaches. A smaller “ultra low-emission zone” has been proposed for 2020, which would charge all vehicles that are not of a certain standard £12.50 ($18.80) a day. European Commission fines for breaching limits may encourage cities to do more. But other countries are more ambitious: 60 such zones exist in Germany, targeting private cars as well as vans. In December Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, announced that she wanted to ban diesel cars by 2020. Cities in Denmark and the Netherlands do more to boost cycling.

When a thick “pea souper” smog enveloped London in 1952, causing the deaths of around 4,000 people in one week, the government was compelled to push through legislation to clean the air. Perhaps the largest problem now is that, with rare exceptions such as a Saharan dust smog that covered the capital in April 2014, this new pollution is invisible. But policy-makers should not lose sight of it.

via Air pollution: The big smoke | The Economist.

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Delhi’s polluted air may force Obama to stay indoors

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Amid reports that the US may curb President Barack Obama’s early morning schedule during his visit to Delhi later this month, air pollution monitoring agencies said the levels of ‘PM2.5’ or fine, respirable particles that get lodged in the lungs are likely to be in the range of moderate to high in the period while he’s here.

Amid reports that the US may curb President Barack Obama’s early morning schedule during his visit to Delhi later this month, air pollution monitoring agencies said the levels of ‘PM2.5’ or fine, respirable particles that get lodged in the lungs are likely to be in the range of moderate to high in the period while he’s here.

Air quality, because of the high pollution in the city, is routinely rated by the US embassy pollution monitor as “poor” — in other words, unhealthy. It’s in that context there is speculation that the US authorities here could seek to curtail Obama’s “outdoor activities” during his visit.

However, what makes this difficult is that Obama is chief guest at the Republic Day parade which is held in the open and in the morning when pollution levels are usually high.

It’s possible that Obama will be seated in a sealed bulletproof enclosure which will keep out the polluted air. When contacted, US embassy sources dismissed all speculation about Obama’s outdoor activities being curtailed.

According to data with Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the PM2.5 level for the past three years – 2012, 2013, 2014 – during January 25 to 27 (the period when Obama will be here) was between 130 to 170 microgram per cubic metre, which is at least five times the WHO standard, eight times the US Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) standard and twice the Indian safe standard.

The PM2.5 levels early in the morning when the R-Day parade is held is likely to be very high. In 2013, on the Republic Day between 6 am to 10 am, PM 2.5 values ranged between 234 to 160 g/m3. So, the levels could peak to 15 times the US safe standard of 15 g/m3.

This winter, the US embassy’s monitoring station in Chanakyapuri has been recording several days with “hazardous” air quality because of severe smog. The embassy provides an AQI in the city with real time PM2.5 values and a corresponding health advisory.

“It is too early for the SAFAR model to predict the air quality on January 26, but based on the statistical analysis of past four year of data and considering the growth in emissions and weather conditions, it is estimated that value of PM2.5 on that day is likely to be hover between moderate to poor, between 90 to 110 g/m3, which is better than now,” said Gufran Beig, chief project scientist of System of Air Quality, Weather Forecasting and Research.

via Delhi’s polluted air may force Obama to stay indoors – The Times of India.

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Air pollution can cause harm to DNA, UBC study finds

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can result in fundamental changes to parts of a person’s DNA, according to a new B.C. study – a finding that has implications for long-term exposure to air pollution, but also methods of reversing the damage.

For the study, published in this month’s Particle and Fibre Toxicology, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health put volunteers in a small room with diluted and aged exhaust fumes comparable to the air quality along a Beijing highway, or a busy B.C. port.

They found that in just two hours, the exposure affected the chemical “coating” attached to many parts of a person’s DNA – triggering a process called methylation that can silence or dampen a gene, preventing it from producing a protein.

Two hours of exposure would not significantly harm a person’s health, but the study provides a glimpse at how longer-term exposure might affect people living in Beijing, or miners regularly subject to diesel exhaust, for example.

Chris Carlsten, the study’s senior author and associate professor of medicine and chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at UBC, said the study’s results may help scientists find ways of managing the air pollution that comes with population growth and densifying urban environments.

“Let me be clear: The most important thing we can do is reduce air pollution,” Dr. Carlsten said in an interview on Wednesday. “However, because we know that we can’t simply remove air pollution instantaneously … in the mean time, would like to have some way to moderate the impact.”

He said the fact that DNA changes happen so quickly suggests scientists could find ways to prevent or reverse the impacts of air pollution.

Those measures could potentially take the form of anti-oxidants, or other pharmacologic or natural supplements, Dr. Carlsten said. The researchers will be looking at that as part of their next set of studies.

Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist and B.C.’s lone Green MLA, said the study should serve as a reminder of the alternatives to driving gas-fuelled cars.

“Why would we not want to power our vehicles with things other than fossil fuels?” he said. “Vancouver is a jurisdiction like Victoria, where it is perfect for electric vehicles. This is yet another example of how to avoid the [adverse] health affects associated with the combustion of these fossil fuels.”

via Air pollution can cause harm to DNA, UBC study finds – The Globe and Mail.

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Air pollution at record levels in North Pole Monday

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

Fairbanks

A North Pole monitoring station recorded a record bad air day Monday, based on the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s preliminary data.

As an inversion continued to trap cold and polluted air in the Tanana Valley Monday, the air quality was particularly bad in North Pole where concentrations crossed into what the borough considers the “very unhealthy” range.

The 24-hour average for Monday hit a concentration of 169 micrograms per cubic meter of air, a record since the borough began monitoring air quality at the Hurst Road fire station in 2012, said borough Air Quality Manager Ron Lovell. That number is nearly five times the 35 microgram limit set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The measurement is preliminary because the accuracy of the reading still must be confirmed, a process that takes about a month, he said. Sensors are more likely to give inaccurate readings on cold days, which also tend to be the worst pollution days.

If confirmed, Monday’s reading would break North Pole’s 158 microgram bad air day record from Nov. 25, 2012.

Air quality has also been bad in downtown Fairbanks, but it’s in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range rather than the “unhealthy” range.

That’s been the general pattern this year. The 24-hour average in North Pole has exceeded the EPA standard 30 times this winter. In Fairbanks, it has exceeded it twice this year — Sunday and Monday, Lovell said. Air quality has improved slightly since Monday, but remains “unhealthy” in North Pole and “unhealthy for sensitive groups” Tuesday afternoon. Based on the weather forecast, poor air quality conditions are expected to continue into Friday, Lovell said.

via Air pollution at record levels in North Pole Monday – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Local News.

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11th Spare the Air day declared for Tuesday

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

A Winter Spare the Air alert announced for Tuesday is the Bay Area’s 11th of the season.

During such alerts, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District bans the burning of wood, manufactured fire logs and other solid fuels for 24 hours, both indoors and out.

A high pressure weather system is in place over the Bay Area, resulting in cold, calm weather, along with poor air quality this weekend, the district said. As air pollution accumulates in the region, air quality is forecast to be unhealthy for the second day in a row.

It is illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to use their fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves, outdoor fire pits or any other wood-burning devices during a winter Spare the Air alert. Homes without permanently installed heating, where wood stoves or fireplaces are the only source of heat, are exempt.

In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area is the single largest source of air pollution, according to the district, contributing about one-third of the harmful fine particulate pollution in the air.

One fireplace burning can pollute an entire neighborhood. Exposure to wood smoke — like cigarette smoke — has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses and even increased risk of heart attacks. Breathing fine particulate accounts for more than 90 percent of premature deaths related to air pollution.

First-time violators will be given the option of taking a wood smoke awareness class, online or by mail, to learn about the hazards of wood smoke pollution in lieu of paying a $100 ticket. Second violations will result in a $500 ticket, and subsequent ticket amounts will be higher.

The public must check before it burns during the winter Spare the Air season, which runs from Nov. 1 through Feb. 28. The daily burn status can be found on the air quality district’s websites —BAAQMD.gov, or SpareTheAir.org — or via the toll-free hotline 877-4-NO-BURN (complaints can also be filed via the hotline).

Residents may sign up for AirAlerts at SpareTheAir.org or by phone at 800-430-1515, or via the Spare the Air iOS and Android apps for smartphones and tablets.

via 11th Spare the Air day declared for Tuesday.

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What you need to know about Utah’s air quality

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

We all know that an inversion traps haze and bad air, but what causes it? What exactly are we breathing in? Bryce Bird, The Air Quality Director of the Department of Environmental Quality explains more about Utah’s air.

DEQ’s mission is to safeguard public health and our quality of life by protecting and enhancing the environment. We implement State and federal environmental laws and work with individuals, community groups, and businesses to protect the quality of our air, land and water.

The Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has developed, with public input, a new air quality alert system to better communicate the complex health implications and activity restrictions based on real-time pollution monitoring data.

Solid fuel burning devices must not be used. Open burning may not occur; including fire pits, fire rings, and campfires. Reduce vehicle use by consolidating trips. Industry should optimize operating conditions to minimize air pollution emissions.

There are many things we can do collectively to help improve both indoor and outdoor air quality. You can also take a look at our Summer and Winter suggestions.

Indoor Air Quality is often described as being healthier than outdoor air quality. On some days this might be true, but there are still issues to be aware of regrading indoor air quality.

Sometimes during winter months, a layer of cold air is confined within the Wasatch Front valleys by the surrounding mountains. Above the cold, dense layer is warm air. This inversion acts much like a lid, trapping pollutants within the cold air.

Proper insulation, storm windows, and weatherizing are your first steps in winter home energy conservation. These measures reduce the amount of heat necessary to keep your home warm. The less wood burned, the less pollution generated.

The Division of Air Quality continues to be committed to improving Utah’s air quality. Historically, we’ve been able to meet the challenges of tougher federal standards to help Utahns breathe easier and live healthier.

This past year, we saw significant progress with a range of emission reduction initiatives. By partnering with other state agencies and industry, the Division of Air Quality’s Utah Clean Diesel Program expanded its retrofits of old school buses to include farm equipment and engines. And most recently, with the receipt of an EPA grant, we will be working to re-power diesel delivery trucks with new natural gas engines. We continue to develop common-sense solutions to meet EPA’s stronger standards for ozone and particulate pollution so that all Utahns in every part of our great state can breathe easier and live healthier.

via What you need to know about Utah’s air quality – Good4Utah.com.

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Inversion causes poor air quality in Treasure Valley

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Respro® UK Ltd

The inversion is causing some air quality issues in the Treasure Valley and it’s not expected to move out for a few days.

Air quality experts are recommending that certain groups limit their time outdoors.”No wind, no moisture, just kind of sitting here in that stagnant funk,” said Michael Toole, regional airshed coordinator for The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

DEQ has issued an orange air quality alert. That means the elderly, children, and people with pre-existing heart or respiratory conditions should spend limited time outside.

“The air quality is deteriorating a little more. The pollution is a little higher,” said Toole. “Limit your outdoor activity as much as possible. Limit the exposure, especially those sensitive groups.”The inversion acts like a cap, trapping pollution in the valley. But if you want to breathe some fresh air, you have at least one option.

KTVB found some people heading up Bogus Basin Road to check out the inversion from above.”It’s really pretty,” said Bethany Barndollar who’s visiting Idaho from California.

She was headed to check out conditions at Bogus Basin when she decided to pull over and snap some pictures of the inversion.”You can see how it just settles right over the city like that,” she added.

Meanwhile, DEQ officials are reminding people in the Treasure Valley to be safe as the inversion continues.”It looks like we’re pretty socked in right now. It’s strengthened significantly and we’re going to be in the orange for the next few days,” said Toole.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality will be keeping an eye on conditions as this inversion continues.A burn ban is in effect for the Treasure Valley because of the poor air quality. Experts also recommend limiting your driving, if you can, to reduce air pollution.

via Inversion causes poor air quality in Treasure Valley.

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