The Bexley monitoring site in Manor Road, Erith reopened last month, with funding from Transport for London, after being mothballed in February 2011 for budgetary reasons.,
The site is of particular interest since it was the first monitoring site specifically opened by a local authority to monitor particulate in the vicinity of a waste management site and has exceeded the Air Quality Daily Objective for PM10 every year since it opened in 1999.
The January edition of King’s monthly newsletter Air Mail is out now with all the latest news and research from the Environmental Research Group.
If you would like to sign up to receive it straight to your inbox please email erg-airmail@kcl.ac.uk
Dr Gary Fuller was recently interviewed by BBC London for the popular Inside Out programme about pollution in London and the upcoming Olympics.
Inside Out covers a range of topics affecting the city and this edition, presented by Matthew Wright, included a section on London’s air pollution.
The programme looked at some of the Mayor’s recent policy interventions and also included interviews with Clean Air for London campaigner Simon Birkett, Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s Director of Environment and asthma sufferers in what was a wide-ranging and thoughtful piece on current air quality issues in London.
The King’s College London Air iPhone app was also highlighted, with presenter Toby Anstis demonstrating some of its features. This exposure led to a dramatic increase in downloads of the app, such that Tuesday evening and Wednesday saw 2,690 users download and install the applicaiton. Further, of those new downloads, 538 users opted to receive notifications of pollution events on the LAQN network.
The programme will be available on the BBC’s website until the 30th of January, and the air pollution section starts at 19 minutes.
A new study to further extend the evidence base as to whether emissions from modern well run Municipal Waste Incinerators affect human health has been approved by the Health Protection Agency.
The HPA’s current position that well run and regulated modern Municipal Waste Incinerators (MWIs) are not a significant risk to public health remains valid, but the study is being carried out to extend the evidence base and to provide further information to the public on this subject.
The HPA will be funding the Small Area Health Statistics Unit, Imperial College London, and the Environmental Research Group, King’s College London, both part of the MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, to carry out the study.
For a distance of up to 10 – 15 kilometres from MWIs operating in the England and Wales, scientists will research whether there is a potential link between the emissions from MWIs and health outcomes, including: low birth weight, still births and infant deaths.
Researchers will also investigate any possible link between MWI emissions and babies born with congenital anomalies, such as cleft palate and spina bifida, in areas where good quality data is available.
HPA chief executive Justin McCracken said: “It is important to stress that our current position on the potential health effects of well run and regulated modern Municipal Waste Incinerators remains valid. This is that while it is not possible to rule out adverse health effects from modern, well regulated municipal waste incinerators with complete certainty, any potential damage to the health of those living close-by is likely to be very small, if detectable. This view is based on detailed assessments of the effects of air pollutants on health and on the fact that modern and well managed municipal waste incinerators make only a very small contribution to local concentrations of air pollutants.
“However, we recognise that there are public concerns about this issue and this study will provide valuable new evidence. HPA continually seeks to review and extend the evidence base on which it bases its advice. We are therefore delighted to support this new study with researchers from the MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health.”
The Association of London Environmental Health Managers (ALEHM) reviewed the LAQN during autumn 2011.
Stakeholders, including London boroughs, King’s, the Health Protection Agency, DEFRA and the GLA, presented at a meeting on 17 November 2011. Topics included the history and operation of the network, provision of public information, LAQN support to the Health Protection Agency during emergency incidents, and during the Olympics, and costs of network membership in relation to other monitoring site costs. The strategic value of the LAQN measurements at both London-wide and UK level was also highlighted in presentations from the DEFRA and the GLA. In their statement ALEHM concluded: