Toxic air around local primary schools & nurseries

[bels123]

.

[Brulysses]

One good way is to get as many of your friends/colleagues/family to stop driving diesels, and maybe take up cycling or use less polluting forms of public transport...or even walk!

[Nigello]

Cmapaiging is good but the very best thing that anyone can do is to drive less.

[MarkT]

Bels123,

High levels of pollutants anywhere is indeed cause for concern but, I suggest you focus on the roads, ie the source, rather than individual schools and nurseries.

From the articles that you cite it appears that the pollution measurements have been done on roads, not on premises. Where, therefore, have you found out that the two premises that you name ?have both measured levels of emissions which breach the EU level??

The articles in your links don?t name the roads, but taking, as examples, the two premises you cite, the roads identified by Greenpeace are presumably East Dulwich Grove, Lordship Lane and Grove Vale.

Neither article provides any reason for choosing a bandwidth of 150 metres either side of a particular road, but to put that in context for your two examples, taking just the area surrounded by those roads, ie just one side of those main roads, that would include all of Zenoria Street, Tintagel Crescent, Elsie Road, Derwent Grove, Railway Rise, the south section of Melbourne Grove and the Dulwich Hospital site. It includes every house on those streets.

Greenpeace is quoted here:

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/5-schools-8-nurseries-bristol-18281

They say it is a snapshot; they have not measured pollution levels on every road. I would think that a 300 metre-wide corridor around any road added to their list would include a lot more educational premises.

Your child spends more time out of school.

[bels123]

Thanks for replying.

Not sure of your point MarkT, other than the air quality is really bad everywhere! I mentioned the local schools to me as that is what has stirred my interest (and there are local schools listed with lower levels so it will be a factor when deciding on school choices) but it's the road and cars causing it that I'm interested in seeing if there are any local groups I can get involved with to help.

[ianr]

Look at least at the Greenpeace article https://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2017/04/04/air-pollution-map-mean/.

There are a lot of Defra datasets, but given that the data are said to be from a road sampling, I suspect they're as in the attached screenshot of NOx measurements as got from https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/gis-mapping. It's a sampling only of A roads. I don't know any of the sampling details but they should be available to assiduous delving. You can use the map tool on that page to look at other types of emissions, and also with Data Type = Background.

[Jules-and-Boo]

hi - perhaps get involved with the school PTA - and actually ask parents to not drive to school.

[rendelharris]

I wonder if anyone's done research on the actual pollution levels inside the school grounds? The statistics seem to be for schools within 150 yards of roads with dangerous levels of pollution, so it's conceivable that a school uphill and/or upwind of the dangerous road and with buildings or tree cover between them and it might have lower pollution levels than one downwind/downhill and less well screened, even if it were further away from the nearest high pollution road.

It is really criminal that parents should have to take this into consideration in choosing a school.

[MissKing]

If the nurseries are nearby to where you live, does that not mean then that your home will also be 'in the zone'?

[bels123]

Yep, exactly MissKing - which is why I'm really concerned and motivated to try and do something about it, somehow.

Thanks for the PTA suggestion Jules, I'd be interested to know what schools are doing to encourage parents to walk instead of drive, and whether they have tried to raise awareness on specifics such as engine idling. Can't help but notice lots of car pick ups for Goose Green. Not sure if other schools the same.

[Jules-and-Boo]

is it the schools responsibility to address the parents reluctance to walk?

That's why I suggested the PTA and not the school.

[yeknomyeknom]

I wrote to my local school asking them to put in the newsletter an encouraging Request not to keep the engine running outside school (usually for air conditioning in summer).

Silver birch trees and many other plants significantly reduce pollution in their immediate environments. Again I've encouraged my school to establish hedges at fences etc.

I've read that even standing one step back from the road makes a difference to the pollution you consume so it's well worth taking less busy routes and standing wall side of a road rather than kerb side.

Finally, not so good for schools but maybe for home, I have signed up for this product that you might also like:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/882633450/wynd-the-smartest-air-purifier-for-your-personal-s?ref=email

[Phlox]

yeknomyeknom Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I wrote to my local school asking them to put in

> the newsletter an encouraging Request not to keep

> the engine running outside school (usually for air

> conditioning in summer).

>

> Silver birch trees and many other plants

> significantly reduce pollution in their immediate

> environments. Again I've encouraged my school to

> establish hedges at fences etc.

>

> I've read that even standing one step back from

> the road makes a difference to the pollution you

> consume so it's well worth taking less busy routes

> and standing wall side of a road rather than kerb

> side.

>

> Finally, not so good for schools but maybe for

> home, I have signed up for this product that you

> might also like:

> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/882633450/wyn

> d-the-smartest-air-purifier-for-your-personal-s?re

> f=email

Air purifier looks interesting. If it comes from the States you will have to pay taxes and duty.

[McMurphy]

TFL consultation on the proposed ultra low emission zone:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/environment/air-quality-consultation-phase-2/?cid=airquality-consultation