How clean is the air where you live?

Day 1: Air pollution is London’s biggest challenge, with millions of Londoners being exposed to unhealthy levels. What is your borough doing to improve air quality and is it enough?

Air pollution levels vary vastly all over London. Pic: Sarah Glover-Smith

A nine-year-old girl lived within 25 meters of the busy South Circular Road in Lewisham, a route she often walked to school. She was severely asthmatic and air pollution levels repeatedly exceeded the legal limit on that road she so often passed by. She was admitted to hospital 27 times between 2010 and 2013. In February 2013, the young girl died. Her name was Ella Kissi-Debrah.

Seven years later, a 10-day landmark inquest determined air pollution “materially contributed” to Ella’s death. Millions of Londoners, including over 400,000 children like Ella, still live in areas exceeding the legal air pollution limits. Currently, the life of a child born in 2013 would be cut short by seven to 11 months due to exposure to poor air quality during their lifetime.

Air pollution in London has plunged since 2016, with the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of Nitrogen Dioxide decreasing by 94 per cent. But still only 1 per cent of London meets the Word Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for PM2.5 emissions  – a particulate matter originating from carbon emissions from engines, small bits of metal and rubber from engine wear, braking and dust from road surfaces. Exposure to these emissions can have serious health effects, as these particulates can settle in your lungs and airway. The UK is in compliance with the legal limits for PM2.5, but these limits are set at twice the level of the WHO guidelines – the level at which exposure is a threat to your health. Read more about pollutants, health effects and legal limits in our explainer.

If London meets the WHO guidelines for PM2.5 by 2030, the life expectancy of Londoners can be improved significantly. So what action is your council taking to tackle air pollution and reduce your exposure to it? What do air pollution levels currently look like? Where are limits – legal limits as well as the WHO guidelines – still being exceeded?

If you live in the ELL boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham or Tower Hamlets, you can find out more about the levels of air pollution in your area – and discover what your local council is doing about it – below. During the multiple lockdowns over the last year, especially the first one, road traffic decreased and the air pollution levels in 2020 will probably give a falsely positive representation of current air quality. Because of that, ELL looked at 2019 data. 

Croydon

According to a research conducted for City Hall, Croydon residents’ health is among the worst affected by air pollution – with BAME communities and the elderly particularly at risk. The borough has the highest number of hospital emissions for asthmatics within London; a group especially susceptible of air pollution effects. Inside Croydon reported that toxic air quality in the borough increases the risk of death in a way comparable to smoking 150 cigarettes a year.

About 6.3 per cent of annual deaths in the borough are attributable to air pollution, according to Clean Air, a not-for-profit organisation which campaigns for full compliance with WHO guidelines for air pollution. The entire borough of Croydon is considered an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) – these are regions where compliance with the legal limits and WHO guidelines is unlikely to be achieved – because of its continuous failure to reduce NO2 emissions to below the limit and to meet the WHO guidelines for PM. Road transport is the largest contributor to NO2 emissions in the borough.

Four continuous air quality monitoring stations are located within Croydon: London Road Norbury; Norbury Manor school; Park Lane and Purley Way. The borough seems to have made some progress regarding its air pollution levels. In 2019, about 15 per cent of the councils NO2 testing sites still exceeded the legal limits – an improvement from the 24 per cent in 2016.

On the map below you can find all of Croydon’s measuring sites, with the red dots implying illegal levels of NO2 emissions in 2019. Zoom in to find out how the areas around your home, work or regular exercise spots are doing.

What is Croydon council doing about it?

Croydon’s current Air Quality Action Plan – addressing what measures the council is taking to reduce the borough’s air pollution levels and human exposure – runs from 2017 until 2022. The council specifically sets out three top priorities in their plan: to control emissions from new developments and construction sites, tackling emissions due to servicing and freight vehicles, and reduce exposure to air pollution and raise awareness for residents and those who work in the borough. But according to Peter Underwood from Friends of the Earth Croydon, they need to do more: “I don’t think any council is doing enough. We need far more action on all levels; local, regional and national. Air pollution kills and it’s not being taken seriously. They don’t treat it like the health crisis it is – something they do manage to do for Covid.”

When the action plan was published, more than 50 developments were planned in central Croydon. Emissions from developments and constructions are responsible for about 15 per cent of emissions in London, making a plan to reduce emissions from these projects essential for the borough. “Pollutants from construction is only part of it though. We should also consider the impact of people living in those buildings. It has happened in Croydon before that a whole development is built in areas without any facilities such as accessible public transport or cycling routes. Then those people would need a car to move around,” Underwood says.

The main issue in the borough is traffic: “There’s a big responsibility for the council to make walking and cycling more accessible. Croydon’s trams have been very successful and there were talks about extending the tram network, but nobody has followed through. That’s part of the issue; it’s just a lot of hot air. It’s all good intentions and talking, but we need real action. And that is barely happening so far, at least not at the scale or speed we need it to.”

In September last year, the council introduced 10 more School Streets so that pupils can travel to school in a safe and healthy way. This brought the number of school streets to 21, which should be increased to 26 soon. They also introduced a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) in Crystal Palace, which essentially had to encourage walking and cycling and reduce traffic – making these neighbourhoods healthier and safer.

But this well-intended LTN has been receiving quite some backlash from residents, with campaign group Open Our Roads even taking legal action against the council in November. Underwood has a different opinion: “LTNs are about behavioural change, and that takes time to achieve. In the end, we need to reduce the amount of [car]journeys made. People complain about traffic jams but those aren’t caused by LTNs, they’re caused by cars. The way this LTN was implemented was, however, debatable; there should’ve been more consulting with local people because you want them on your side.”

Read what actions you can take to reduce your contribution to air pollution here.

Hackney

“Hackney has the sixth highest death rate from poor air quality in the country,” Cllr Chris Kennedy, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Leisure wrote about the borough. The council says it is determined to change this and is committed to “building back the borough greener” after the pandemic.

Hackney is the only ELL borough that has published a new Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) recently, even linking it to the pandemic and the importance of reducing air pollution when a respiratory virus is going around. Recent lockdowns have shown that a reduction in vehicles, a major contributing source to air pollution, has health benefits and wider benefits such as cleaner, safer streets and increased community interaction.

Clean Air, a not-for-profit organisation campaigning for full compliance with WHO guidelines for air pollution, estimates 7 per cent of all deaths in Hackney are attributable to air pollution. For reference, the London average is 6.6 per cent and for the whole of England it’s 5.2 per cent.

All of Hackney is an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) – these are regions where compliance with the legal limits and WHO guidelines is unlikely to be achieved – and annual average limits for NO2 and the daily average limit for PM10 are not met. In 2019, over a third of the council’s testing sites showed that air pollution exceeded the legal limits – this was an improvement from the 60 per cent that exceeded these limits in 2016. The automatic site still exceeded WHO guidelines for PM10, making those levels unhealthy.

On the map below you can find all of Hackney’s measuring sites, with the red dots implying illegal levels of NO2 emissions in 2019. Zoom in to find out how the areas around your home, work or regular exercise spots are doing.

What is Hackney council doing about it?

Hackney wants to adopt the WHO’s guidelines for particulate matter pollution by 2030 – going beyond the National Air Quality Objectives. Road transport and emissions from construction are an important focus of the AQAP. To reduce emissions from construction, and lead by example with their own housing stock, the council developed a Supplementary Planning Document (SDP) and code of construction for air quality – both going beyond the GLA regulations.

To increase the uptake of active transport such as walking and cycling, the borough introduced multiple Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) – actively closing roads to vehicles. This way they try to create better infrastructure for cycling and walking, while reducing emissions in those neighbourhoods. “I have seen more people walking and cycling [in London Fields] than I have ever seen before, clearly enticed by cleaner, quieter streets”, Cllr Kennedy wrote about one of the three LTNs in the borough. Still, not all residents see the positive side of a LTN and complaints were made about what Cllr Kennedy called “a short-term disruption”. In his opinion, that’s a small price to pay for a “greener, healthier Hackney”.

Another key focus of the council is safeguarding some of the most susceptible people in Hackney: children and socioeconomically deprived families, who tend to live in areas with poorer air quality. To reduce exposure among children, Hackney has introduced School Streets – meaning that roads surrounding the school gates are closed off to traffic during opening and closing time of the schools – around 41 primary schools in the borough. The council says results from their pilot School Streets showed tailpipe emissions were reduced by 74 per cent. As another initiative to improve air quality around schools, the council introduced pollution-blocking ivy screens to two schools in Stoke Newington last November.

Read what actions you can take to reduce your contribution to air pollution here.

Lewisham

The council had “failed to treat air pollution as a public health emergency” in the years leading up to Ella’s death in 2013. It was decided they should have done more to raise awareness among its residents – especially those more susceptible to air pollution – of the health impacts, and should have done more in those years to reduce it.

According to Clean Air, a not-for-profit organisation campaigning for full compliance with WHO guidelines for air pollution, an estimated 6.7 per cent of deaths in the borough are – like Ella’s death – attributable to air pollution. The borough still fails to meet the legal limits for NO2 at some of their measuring sites, and are exceeding the WHO guidelines for PM. Because of this, the entire borough is an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA)  – regions where the limit and guideline levels are unlikely to be met.

In 2019, only two of the council’s testing sites showed that air pollution exceeded the legal limits – which has been a massive improvement from almost half of the sites in 2016.

On the map below you can find all of Lewisham’s measuring sites, with the red dots implying illegal levels of NO2 emissions in 2019. Zoom in to find out how the areas around your home, work or regular exercise spots are doing.

What is Lewisham council doing about it?

Recently, the borough received funding from central Government to make 165 Lewisham Home properties, community centres and adult learning centres more energy efficient. “The investment in retrofitting buildings and homes to support energy in Lewisham is a key milestone towards our target of becoming a carbon neutral borough by 2030,” Cllr Sophie McGeevor, Cabinet member for Environment and Transport, said in a statement. There are seven major development sites in the borough, which is why planning policies are an important pillar of Lewisham’s Air Quality Action Plan.

The council introduced a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) in Lee Green last year, which has not been received well by many residents. Paul Lomax, 42, part of local initiative One Lewisham, has been campaigning for changes to be made to the LTN. “By design they don’t benefit everyone. We’ve been trying to get [the council] to consider changes like limiting the LTN to certain times and allowing residents. Because now they have to make extra miles to get to where they need to be.” He also highlights how the LTN is just pushing traffic to roads that are already busy: “Lee Green is bound to two Red Routes, [some of the busiest roads], and traffic just goes there instead. After all the criticism on this LTN, I don’t think the council will introduce more.”

But Lomax is positive about the School Streets in the borough: “We think Lewisham’s better off with more School Streets than LTNs, and the council has been doing well with those.” Only, the council is not implementing School Streets within the LTN, as they believe it is not necessary.

Overall, Lomax thinks the council should be doing more to tackle air pollution. “The Ultra Low Emission Zone will be expanded to Lewisham, but only for the North part of the South-circular.” That road is one of the worst in the borough, and Ella lived close in its proximity. “It will create a divide within the borough,” Lomax says. He also highlights the council’s responsibility to make people aware: “People should be able to make an informed choice. [Ella’s mum] said she would have tried to move if she’d known. But also, not everyone is in that position and rent prices are lower on main roads. Currently a third of Londoners still lives within 50 meters of a main road.”

Read what actions you can take to reduce your contribution to air pollution here.

Tower Hamlets

In Tower Hamlets, air pollution is a major issue. The council stated in a 2019 report that nearly 50 schools and 77 per cent of the borough’s population were located in areas exceeding the limits. Residents expressed their concerns about air quality in the latest Annual Residents Survey, where they ranked air pollution as their seventh highest priority. This worry is not without reason, as Clean Air, a not-for-profit organisation campaigning for full compliance with WHO guidelines for air pollution, estimates 7 per cent of the borough’s deaths are currently attributable to human-made air pollution – making it one of the worst boroughs in the country.

For children, air pollution levels form a higher health risk because their small, developing lungs breathe in relatively more air. In Tower Hamlets this has led to children’s lung function being 5 to 10 per cent less than the national average – which they may never get back.

The borough has the highest levels of traffic in the country, responsible for 40 per cent of CO2 emissions, over 50 per cent of NO2 emissions and just under 50 per cent of PM2.5 emissions. The entire borough was declared an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA), these are regions where the legal limits and WHO guidelines are unlikely to be achieved, and fails to meet the annual average limit for NO2 and the WHO guidelines for PM10.

On a positive note, 2019 data shows that the number and percentage of sites exceeding the UK’s legal limits had decreased. In 2016 about 60 per cent of the measuring sites failed to meet the limit; this decreased to 22 per cent in 2019.

On the map below you can find all of Tower Hamlets’ measuring sites, with the red dots implying illegal levels of NO2 emissions in 2019. Zoom in to find out how the areas around your home, work or regular exercise spots are doing.

What is Tower Hamlets council doing about it?

Tower Hamlets’ Air Quality Action Plan covers the period between 2017 and 2022. A big part of that AQAP focuses on schools and a reduction of exposure to air pollution among children. The council introduced the Liveable Streets programme and the School Street programme, aiming to make Tower Hamlets’ streets safer to cycle and walk and make these active travel options more attractive to its residents. For the next phase of the Liveable Streets Programme in four of its neighbourhoods the council freed up £13.8m of their £392m investment programme.

As an active encouragement for residents to opt for greener vehicle options, the borough will be installing 182 new electric and hybrid vehicle charging points in 2021 – and they want to increase this to 300 charging points by 2025. The council themselves are trying to set the right example by “greening” their own fleet.

Additionally, in 2019 a twenty-year transport strategy was launched – with a leading role for walking and cycling. When this strategy was announced, not even half of all trips made by the borough’s residents were on foot or by bike and it was estimated that an additional 200.000 trips on bikes could be made.

But as for now, traffic remains the borough’s main problem. “Life in Tower Hamlets is under threat from a growing environmental crisis. The environmental crisis can already be felt in the air we breathe. Despite a temporary drop during lockdown, air pollution levels in Tower Hamlets remain dangerously high,” the short film Time for Change, commissioned by Poplar Harca and Aberfeldy Practice GP Emma Radcliffe, starts. The A12 is the boroughs main concern, a road that used to be one lane each way but is now six lanes wide. Paul Mancreif, a local resident, says in the film: “I’m suffering myself. I choose not to walk around that main road, because I can feel it, I can taste it.” He’s been living in the borough since the 70s and has noticed many changes with flats being built higher and higher and green spaces decreasing. The short film highlights that action is needed, and it’s needed now.

Read what actions you can take to reduce your contribution to air pollution here.

Click here to read more of the clean air series #ELL4CleanAir

Leave a Reply