Glasgow pollution levels unrecorded as equipment lies broken

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Campaigners say residents are at risk as levels of pollution in Glasgow go unrecorded when monitoring equipment breaks down.

Environmental groups have warned that lives are being put at risk and are calling for urgent action to make sure pollution is properly monitored in the city.

Three of the air pollution monitors in the city have suffered technical failures in 2014, leaving many people with health conditions at risk.

Asthma sufferer Mick Starbuck says he relies on the monitors to tell him when he can go to certain areas.

“There are days when I struggle even to get out to the car or walk 50 yards or more”, he said.

“It’s particularly bad in the city centre and I had to stop attending meetings in Edinburgh. I have particular trouble with bus and train stations as well so even public transport isn’t an easy option for me.

“If I’m going to somewhere in particular like say I want to go to Glasgow University, I will look at the Byers Road monitor, providing it’s working.

“But I’ll keep an eye on the other monitors because each monitors different levels of different components in the atmosphere.”

A council spokesman said the council’s supplier had been instructed to carry out repairs and despite missing data they can still evaluate an approximate number of times pollution levels go over the limits.

A monitor in the west end of the city on Byers Road was offline for more than seven months, while a recorder in Anderston was broken for six weeks. The monitor on Nithsdale Road remains out of action after breaking down over 2 months ago.

Friends of the Earth campaigner Emilia Hanna says more needs to be done to tackle Glasgow’s pollution problem.

She said: “In Glasgow alone every year 200 people die from exposure to air pollution so it really is a silent killer.

“Not enough is being done to tackle air pollution in Glasgow.

“For many years now we’ve had levels of air pollution which are breaking European legally binding standards so we need to see much stronger measures being put forward by the city council and by the government.”

Glasgow City Council said they have produced two action plans to improve air quality and last year spent £500,000 on cycling improvements, vehicle emission enforcement, travel planning and car clubs.

Next year the electric bus service will launch alongside further cycling improvements and work is ongoing to improve air quality.

via Glasgow pollution levels unrecorded as equipment lies broken | Scotland | News.

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An Interactive Air-Pollution Map

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

In March, the World Health Organization estimated that air pollution was responsible for 7 million premature deaths in 2012. That’s one out of every eight total deaths in the world.

Air quality has gotten worse over the last decade, and for more people. The 2014 Environmental Performance Index EPI, a biennial global ranking that compares countries on high-priority environmental issues, shows that over the last decade, the number of people breathing unsafe air has risen by 606 million and now totals 1.78 billion. That’s one quarter of the global population.

But where are people suffering the worst air pollution, and how do we know? To help answer this question, we’ve compiled a map that shows national and city-level exposures to air pollutants that have the greatest effect on human health, fine particulate matter PM2.5. PM2.5 originates from combustion of fuels from both mobile sources like vehicles and stationary sources, including power plants, industry, and household biomass burning. Although invisible to the human eye, PM2.5 contributes to acute lower respiratory infections and other diseases such as cancer. It can penetrate human lung and blood tissue, leading to higher incidences of cardiovascular and lung disease.

The map overlays two sources of data on air pollution: for cities, the WHO’s recent release of its Ambient outdoor air pollution in cities database 2014; for countries, ground-level exposures to PM2.5 are derived from satellite measures in the 2014 EPI. For the first time, both national and city-level data can be compared to see how air pollution is distributed globally. Here are some observations we made using the map.

There are differences in where air pollution is being monitored.

Many countries still don’t have ground-based monitors to measure fine particulate matter PM2.5. Nearly 70 percent of the air monitoring stations are disproportionately located in wealthy countries. Especially in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America, there are major gaps in monitoring. These are also areas that are industrializing pretty rapidly. Scientists predict that nearly half of the projected growth in urban areas by 2030 will be in China and India alone, while urban areas in Africa are expected to grow a whopping 590 percent from 2000 levels.

Many of these countries that are industrializing and urbanizing so quickly lack ground monitors and tools to communicate to citizens the dangers of different levels of exposure. India, for example, still lacks any index like the U.S.’s Air Quality Index that communicates daily health warnings of various levels of air pollution to the public.

Poor air quality affects all countries, regardless of wealth.

From the country-level data in the map, it’s easy to see that most countries in Europe have annual averaged exposures to PM2.5 that exceed levels the WHO deems as “safe” i.e., 10 micrograms/cubic meter. Paris in March of this year had to impose major restrictions on motor vehicles when air pollution hit dangerously high levels. Salt Lake City in the United States regularly experiences severe smog in the winter time, leading to public health and economic concerns among residents there. What this troubling trend demonstrates is that there isn’t an “Environmental Kuznets Curve” necessarily between wealth and air pollution: As countries get richer, we’re not seeing a decrease in air pollution, suggesting its severity as a global problem.

Cities have it worst.

Comparing the range of observed values between the country-level and city-level data, it’s easy to see that air pollution is worse in cities than when averaged across a whole country. New Delhi, the capital of India, for instance, is the city with the worst air pollution. Many other cities in South Asia, including in Pakistan, Iran, and Bangladesh, all suffer pollution levels more than 10 times higher than the safe threshold. These data further corroborate reports made earlier this year that suggested India, and in particular New Delhi, has severe air pollution that is often overlooked in lieu of China’s air pollution problem see The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time.

While India’s air comes out worst among cities, China’s air quality at a national scale is the worst globally. Compared to India, part of this difference in results is due to the fact that China has more people living in cities more than half than India around one-third. More people living in cities where air pollution is worse means more people exposed, which is reflected in the national aggregate average exposure numbers. In May 2014, China announced that it will remove 5 million older, polluting cars from roads, over half just in Beijing, to address air pollution problems, but the question remains as to whether this number is enough. Statistics for China’s vehicle ownership have grown exponentially over the last decade and topped 240 million at the end of 2012.

While this map provides a baseline understanding of air pollution in your city or country, it’s important to keep in mind that these data represent annual averages or longer term trends. Checking local readings of air pollution levels where available, particularly for groups sensitive to air pollution, such as those who suffer from asthma, can help one decide whether to limit outdoor activities on high-pollution days. Others have taken matters into their own hands, including a proliferation of smartphone apps that compile air quality data like this one. A DIY home air pollution filter movement has also become popular in major cities in China.

via An Interactive Air-Pollution Map – Angel Hsu and Alisa Zomer – The Atlantic.

Posted in Africa, Air Quality, Asia, Australia & Oceania, China, Europe, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Latin America, London, Middle East, UK, USA & Canada, World News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Maryland Under Code Orange Air Quality Alert

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

As temperatures remain high in the region, the quality of air may become dangerous for the vulnerable population.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has issued a Code Orange Air Quality Alert for Tuesday and Wednesday in the Baltimore metro area. It will also be in effect for the Eastern Shore on Tuesday only.

Bob Turk reports hot and humid air is in place, which means chances of daily scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evenings this week.

A Code Orange Air Quality Alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for sensitive groups, which include the elderly, children and people suffering from asthma, heart disease or other lung diseases.

The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding strenuous activity or exercise outdoors.

via Maryland Under Code Orange Air Quality Alert « CBS Baltimore.

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Group seeks action on air pollution

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Harmful levels of cancer-causing arsenic have been detected in the air around Victory from the types of wood being burned in domestic woodburners, Nelson environment and transport strategy group Nelsust says.

The group wants further action on air quality in the area, and is urging the Nelson City Council to “get its act together” after an independent scientific report found arsenic levels in the Victory area were double health guidelines.

The December 2013 report on the source and distribution of particulate matter and concentrations was prepared by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited (GNS Science) for the council.

Nelsust spokesman Peter Olorenshaw said the group was recently made aware of the publicly available report and used it as background at one of its recent meetings, which focused on the latest air quality monitoring in Victory.

Nelsust wants the council to adopt a suggestion from the report that it better enforce air quality regulations or set in place more extensive public education around woodburners and the types of fuel that should be used in them.

The GNS report said that arsenic contamination was considered to be from the use of copper chrome arsenate (CCA), or treated timber being burned in domestic fires.

Rules in the Nelson Air Quality Plan prohibited the discharge of contaminants to air from the burning of CCA-treated timber.

Olorenshaw said burning arsenic-treated timber released arsenic, which is a known carcinogen, into the air.

Data gathered by GNS suggested that “sufficient quantities” were being burned to have an acute localised effect, but repeated exposure during winters may also include a chronic exposure that was close to, or exceeded, ambient air quality guidelines at urban locations in New Zealand.

Nelsust’s analysis of the report was that arsenic levels in the air in the Victory airshed measured in 2009, 2010 and 2011 were double New Zealand air quality guidelines and up to 16 times the guidelines on the worst winter days.

City councillor and Victory resident Matt Lawrey said it was a “real worry” but many people in Nelson could not afford to buy seasoned dry wood from professional suppliers, so they burned whatever wood they could get.

“My personal view is that we need to look at where this treated timber is coming from and talk to the building industry about how we can get more of it going into landfill and less of it going into logburners,” Lawrey said.

Richmond Wood and Coal owner Ashley Kelly was aware that in Victory some people were burning anything they got for free and then cut up, such as wooden storage pallets.

A lot were not tanalised [treated], but it was not known what had been stored on them.

“They could have had drums of arsenic stored on them,” Kelly said.

He said professionally supplied firewood came straight from pine forests and was stored and dried for at least a year before it was sold.

A firewood lot of 3.6 cubic metres cost about $135 and an average household might burn three lots winter, but there were many variables, such as how a home was insulated and whether occupants were home all day.

GNS said an emissions inventory was developed in 2006 by the council, but the accuracy of the inventory around source emissions and types was unclear. It was “critical” for NCC to effectively manage air quality in Nelson Airshed A [Victory and hospital area].

Nelsust wants the council to conduct further education on the use of logburners and for enforcement officers to do a better job in stopping the use of treated timber as fuel by checking woodpiles in the area.

It also suggested introducing fines for those who refused to comply.

Olorenshaw said the council should also be allowing new installations of the least polluting logburners.

Lawrey said another problem was many people in the Victory area were living in poorly insulated properties, which increased their dependence on logburners.

While he saw the appeal of what Nelsust was asking for, suspected enforcement could lead to “a hell of a lot of unhelpful aggravation”.

NCC TARGETS HOME HEATING

The city council is carrying out scientific monitoring in all airsheds across the whole of Nelson this winter as part of the review of its air quality plan, says planning and regulatory committee chairman Brian McGurk. This will help inform the present levels and sources of arsenic in the air.

McGurk said the council’s eco building design adviser, Richard Popenhagen, had visited more than 80 homes so far this winter, including many in the Victory area, and had provided practical advice to residents on how to keep their homes warm, dry and healthy, plus advice on the efficient use and correct fuel for heating appliances.

“People should not hesitate to report any breaches or make complaints. The council’s enforcement will be continuing, and they do follow up on all reported complaints and detected breaches,” McGurk said.

He said further advice about only burning untreated timber was to be included in workshops to be run periodically by Popenhagen and the council’s environmental programmes officer.

The workshops were aimed at including new migrants who had not previously used wood burners.

“These are usually held in the Victory Community Centre and this will help us get the message to those people with little or no English,” McGurk said.

Nelson city Mayor Rachel Reese said it was important that monitoring was continued.

Nelson could follow some examples set by Environment Canterbury with its use of social media and direct contact with the community to gets its message across.

She said in many cases, people who had never before used a wood burner did not know you could not burn treated timber.

“Some basic how-to messages need to be delivered, but we also need to think about who the audience is and communicate in a way that can be understood.”

Reese was aware that sending out brochures to residents’ letterboxes or placing technical information on a website was not always the best way.

“Essentially, people need to be mindful that cheap or free wood is not always good wood.”

via http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/10162582/Group-seeks-action-on-air-pollution

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Wildfire outside Clark Co. prompts air quality advisory

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

A wildfire at the Mexico-California border was one of the factors in an air quality advisory issued in Clark County on Wednesday.

The county’s Department of Air Quality said the fire near Mexicali, a mulch pit fire northeast of the Las Vegas Valley, weather conditions and existing levels of pollutants prompted the advisory for ozone and smoke.

The department noted levels of air pollution were not present but alerted residents about the possibility of unhealthy levels.

According to the county, unhealthy doses of ground-level ozone can build during the afternoon hours. The combination of strong sunlight, hot temperatures and pollutants from automobiles and other sources contribute to ozone.

Officials urged residents to monitor air pollution levels at redrock.clarkcountynv.gov/forecast.

Officials also advised residents to limit strenuous outdoor activity when ozone levels are elevated. In addition, residents were advised to reduce ozone pollution with the following:

Fill up your gas tank after sunset.

Plan errands so they can be done in one trip.

Try not to spill gasoline when filling up and don’t top off your gas tank.

Keep your car well maintained.

Use mass transit or carpool.

Don’t idle your car engine unnecessarily.

Walk or ride your bike whenever practical and safe.

Turn off lights and electronics when not in use. Less fuel burned at power plants means cleaner air.

Consider low-maintenance landscaping that uses less water and doesn’t require the use of gas-powered lawn tools to maintain.

via Wildfire outside Clark Co. prompts air quality advisory – FOX5 Vegas – KVVU.

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Air pollution ‘can cause changes in the brain seen in autism and schizophrenia’

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Early exposure to air pollution causes harmful changes in the brain seen in autism and schizophrenia, research has shown.

The findings in mice follow previous research linking traffic pollution and higher rates of autism in children.

As in humans, it was mostly male mice that were affected.

Besides suffering physical damage to their brains, they performed poorly in tests of short-term memory, learning ability and impulsivity.

In a series of experiments, scientists exposed mice to levels of air pollution typically found in medium-sized cities during the first two weeks after birth.

Mice examined 24 hours after their last exposure displayed evidence of ‘rampant’ inflammation throughout their brains.

Fluid-filled ventricle chambers on both sides of the brain were also enlarged to two or three times their normal size.

Lead researcher Professor Deborah Cory-Slechta, from the University of Rochester, U.S., said: ‘When we looked closely at the ventricles, we could see that the white matter that normally surrounds them hadn’t fully developed.

‘It appears that inflammation had damaged those brain cells and prevented that region of the brain from developing, and the ventricles simply expanded to fill the space.

‘Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that air pollution may play a role in autism, as well as in other neurodevelopmental disorders.’

The same defects were seen in other groups of mice 40 and 270 days after exposure, suggesting they were permanent.

Brains of all three groups of mice also had raised levels of the nerve message chemical glutamate.

Again, this is seen in humans with autism and schizophrenia.The research, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, focused on ultra-fine carbon particles of the type produced by factories and motor vehicles.

Being so small, the particles can travel deep into the lungs and become absorbed into the bloodstream.

Last year, a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry showed that children who spend the first year of life in areas highly polluted by traffic are three times more likely to develop autism.

via Air pollution ‘can cause changes in the brain seen in autism and schizophrenia’ | Mail Online.

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Air quality in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai is ‘poor to severe’, says TERI report

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

People living in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai have been breathing polluted air, which falls under the “poor to severe” category for a considerable number of observations throughout 2013-14, found a report on the air quality status of Maharashtra, published by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCB. The report was prepared by The Energy and Resources Institute TERI based on air quality data monitored by MPCB.

Ambient air quality monitoring stations AAQMS at Sion and Bandra recorded ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ air quality for 70 to 80 per cent of the recorded observations, while ‘poor’ or ‘moderate’ air quality was recorded for more than 35 and 60 per cent of the observations respectively at Navi Mumbai and Panvel. Data for air quality is regularly recorded by the AAQMS of MPCB, which monitor three parameters, namely respirable suspended particulate matter RSPM, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide.

Of the 72 active AAQMS in the state, two are located in Mumbai at Sion and Bandra and seven in Navi Mumbai.

In the state, RSPM was found to exceed annual standard at almost all 70 out of total 72 monitoring stations, while annual oxides of nitrogen concentrations exceeded the standard at one-third of the stations monitored.

The ambient air pollution is assessed by calculating the air quality index – while AQI range of 0-80 microgrammes per cubic metre for sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen and 0-100 microgrammes per cubic metre for RSPM indicated ‘good’, an AQI of more than 150 microgrammes per cubic metre for RSPM and more than 368 microgrammes per cubic metre and 181 microgrammes per cubic metre for sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen indicates ‘poor’.

Of the three pollutants, the report found RSPM to be the major cause of pollution in Navi Mumbai, and in Mumbai, it found RSPM and oxides of nitrogen to be the major cause.

In 2013-14, Sion recorded the highest annual concentrations of nitrogen oxide of about 106 microgrammes per cubic metre, more than 2.5 times the standards. In Navi Mumbai, areas like Panvel, Taloja and Mahape were among the top five AAQMS that recorded highest RSPM concentrations in 2013-14. The various quarry sites in the vicinity could be attributed to high RSPM concentrations in this region, the report added.

Although RSPM pollution is on a decline in Mumbai region, the annual concentrations across the decade has been almost two to three times the annual standard, the report found. Thane and Raigad regions have, in the past three years, recorded an inclining trend for annual RSPM concentrations, the report said.

As per Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas statistics for 2012-13, Maharashtra has the highest number of registered vehicles and consumes the maximum amount of fossil fuels in the country.

“Sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen are irritants to the airway, depending on the size of RSPM and where they deposit themselves in the lung, they can cause inflammation and definitely decrease the lung capacity, which is what makes people breathless,” said Dr Amita Athavale, head of environmental pollution research centre at KEM Hospital.

via Air quality in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai is ‘poor to severe’, says TERI report | The Indian Express.

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Air pollution needs more monitoring, says GMB union

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Councils must work to improve the monitoring of urban air quality after research suggested some UK workers were being exposed to “dangerous” pollution levels, the GMB union has said.

Street cleaners and parking staff were among those most at risk, it said.

A study for GMB measured average levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air using data from 110 monitoring stations.

Air pollution can exacerbate health problems such as asthma and increase the likelihood of lung diseases.The study recorded unsafe levels of air pollution in several parts of London, as well as in Cambridge, Aberdeen, Bath, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Chepstow.

The union said councils should do more to identify the areas and times of day when the problem was worse and then inform local people.

It also said street cleaning and refuse collection routes should be changed to avoid times when air pollution was very high.’Immediate action’

The European Union sets out guidelines for nitrogen dioxide NO2 levels which state that they should not exceed 40ug/m3 micrograms per cubic metre on average over the course of a year.John McClean, national officer of the GMB, said the figures from the study confirmed “the urgent need for better air quality monitoring in urban and built-up areas”.”

Clean air should be a right, not a privilege,” he said.

He also stressed that road transport was a major problem, adding: “We reiterate our call for high-polluting vehicles to be banned from city centres, and for local authorities to take immediate action in priority areas such as near schools, hospitals and doctors’ surgeries.”

In February, the European Commission launched legal proceedings against the UK for failing to deal with air pollution, saying that levels of NO2 – mainly from diesel engines – were “excessive” in many British cities.

The Department for Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs has previously said it is a “challenge” to meet air pollution targets near busy roads, but that air quality has “improved significantly” in recent decades.

via BBC News – Air pollution needs more monitoring, says GMB union.

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