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On Air: Dr Gary Fuller
Last month our very own Dr Gary Fuller spoke at length to monthly air quality magazine Air Quality Bulletin in a wide ranging interview. | 
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Covering topics from the challenges of meeting NO2 and Particulate targets to the increase in diesel in the fleet and the pressures facing local authorities, the interview gives an insight into what motivates ERG and the science behind the headlines. “It is quite shocking that we set in place targets in the late 1990s which were supposed to be achieved in 2005 and 2010, and here we are 14 years later struggling to meet targets on PM10 that we should have met seven years ago. And it will be another ten years before we meet NO2 targets. ” |
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In the interview Fuller talks about the feedback loop of monitoring, analysis, health research and policy formation as the key to tackling air pollution and closing the gap between modelled predictions and actual concentrations of pollutants.
| “NO2 from modern diesel engines came out and we were caught by surprise. We are proud of the London network analysis which allowed us to pick this up, without the network, this may never have been resolved. ” |
Gary remains upbeat throughout the article about the prospects for air quality in the UK despite the economic climate and pressures on local authorities. He also recognises the good will and contribution of the boroughs of London who participate in the London Air Quality Network (LAQN) and make it what it is. “We have a bottom up network driven by local authorities who are drawn together to make something bigger. ” |
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The interview is available to read in full below courtesy of EM Publishing.
Air Quality Bulletin is available on an annual subscription from empublishing.org.uk/air/
| PM10 at Brent - Neasden Lane
On Tuesday 10 April 2012, the LAQN monitoring site on Neasden Lane became the first location in London to breach the National Air Quality Strategy (NAQS) Objective for PM10 for the year |
The NAQS objective allows a daily mean PM10 concentration of 50 ug m-3 on not more than 35 days per year. Provisional measurements indicate that PM10 on Neasden Lane has been above this threshold on 37 days during 2012.
The Neasden Lane monitoring site is located close to a number of regulated waste and other industries that add to the PM10 concentrations in the area. Neasden Lane itself however is a residential street with many houses and flats located close to the road.
 
Previous studies conducted around Neasden Lane Goods Yard have demonstrated that particles from local industry affect the surrounding area. Evidence from work around other waste management sites in London and work done by researchers in the US suggest that elevated PM10 concentrations may extend up to 1 km along haulage routes from these types of facilities, although concentrations at 1 km will be very much less than those close to the monitoring site.
The pollution measured at the Neasden Lane monitoring site does not reflect pollution over Brent or London as a whole, but it is very important with respect to exposure of local residents. Over recent years, PM10 concentrations have improved at the Neasden Lane monitoring site; the 50 ug m-3 threshold was exceeded on 167 days in 2006 and this decreased to 77 days in 2011.
In March of this year the BBC featured a good piece about the Neasden Lane monitoring site featuring interviews with Brent’s Yogini Patel and Clean Air in London’s Simon Birkett.
Details of the Neasden Lane monitoring site on Neasden Lane can be found on London Air.
New art from EXHALE schools study
Breath is a new video animation created by artist Effie Coe working with King’s and the Invisible Dust project on the EXHALE schools study.
Effie was chosen to join the EXHALE project by Invisible Dust curator Alice Sharp and King’s Professor Frank Kelly.
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The EXHALE project is an ongoing British Research Council funded study into the effects of the introduction of the Low Emission Zone on the respiratory health of school children in Tower Hamlets and Hackney.
Each year a team of King’s air quality scientists, doctors from Queen Mary’s university of London and artists from Invisible Dust visit schools in east London. Here they test the lung function of 8 and 9 year olds and provide a teaching session on air pollution in London and health.
Artist Effie Coe: "Understanding air pollution is difficult due it being invisible and seems unconnected to the 20,000 breaths that we each take a day. My input into the study has been to illuminate and visualise the effects of breathing and relate it directly to the lung physiology."
In each of the teaching sessions Coe asks the class to create a drawing by blowing ink across a page using a straw. The drawings produced create a visual record of the exhalation of air while simultaneously resembling the airways in the lungs.
 
"I was impressed by the power of these individual breaths en-masse, through animating the drawings I have created a complex lung structure which breaths in and out returning the breaths back to the processes that they were both artistically and philologically created."
Effie meticulously hand cut the shape of the intricate breath drawings, created by the school children, to produce the animation.
 
Breath is shown here for the first time and will be part of an interpretation exhibition in the Autumn for Invisible Dust’s most ambitious project to date - a rooftop video projection by artist Dryden Goodwin on the Southbank. Please see invisibledust.com for more details.
| New monitoring site on Beddington Lane joins the LAQN
Shortly before Easter, London Borough of Sutton opened a new air quality monitoring site on Beddington Lane. |
The site is located in the grounds of Prologis Park and is close to a number of industrial processes including a waste management facility approximately 30 m to the west.
Oxides of nitrogen and PM10 are measured by TEOM at the new monitoring site, and concentrations of the latter pollutant are expected to create considerable interest given the industrial nature of the surrounding area.
As well as providing valuable information to inform local air quality management, the new monitoring site will add to the wider understanding of PM10 arising from industrial processes in London.
Details of the new site can be found on London Air.
London Air featured on Guardian’s data blog
London Air’s popular stats page which allows users to gain an overview of which sites on the LAQN have passed or failed their annual limits has today been featured on guardian.co.uk
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The Guardian’s data blog is part of a growing trend of data journalism which encourages readers to use data to fact check claims and present new ways of understanding the wealth of data produced by companies and government agencies.
The London Air website is a completely independent source of data and information about air quality in London and is trusted by news organisations, researchers, government and the public alike.
Local authorities whose sites are reported on the London Air website are reaching a wide and engaged audience of public and professionals, where data is presented along with tools and information to help Londoners contextualise and understand London’s Air.
| Characterisation of the PM10 contribution from waste treatment industrial sources
The greatest concentrations of PM10 in London are measured in the vicinities of waste management sites. |
Monitoring PM10 from waste sites is included in local air quality management (DEFRA, 2009), and this requires detailed assessment of PM10 from a waste site if there is relevant exposure, a history of nuisance complaints or visible dust around the site.
Such concerns were raised with respect to several blocks of flats on Mercury Way, in the London Borough of Lewisham, which are in close proximity to a group of waste businesses.
King’s has produced a new study which characterises the influence of the waste treatment industries on the PM10 concentration measured at the London Borough of Lewisham’s Air Quality Monitoring Site in Mercury Way.
During the 19 month study, between 15th February 2010 and 20th September 2011, the local waste management businesses were found to contribute 27% of the mean PM10 daily concentration measured at the AQMS in Lewisham. Although the concentration measured met the EU Limit Values (less than 35 days a year exceeding 50 µg·m-3 as daily mean and the annual mean not exceeding 40 µg·m-3) the industrial sources increased the number of daily exceedances from 5 to 25 days compared to urban background air quality monitoring sites.
The report is the latest in a series produced by King’s which investigates the contribution of waste transfer stations to local PM10 emissions.
You can read the full report here.
Red Tape Challenge
Environmental Protection UK (EPUK) is seeking comments on the Clean Air Act ahead of DEFRA’s public consultation in February 2013. The Clean Air Act is being reviewed by DEFRA as part of the Red Tape Challenge. | 
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Steve Moorcroft, chair of the EPUK Air Quality Committee said, "We are seeking comments on what works and what doesn’t work in the current act. We will feed these into the process at an early stage to try to ensure that the revision addresses the concerns of EP UK members, local authorities and those concerned about the air quality in the UK.”
Please send comments by 31st May 2012 to stevemoorcroft@aqconsultants.co.uk and muirenvironment@aol.com
Video: What can be done to reduce air pollution
This month’s featured video looks at strategies and policies for reducing emissions in our towns and cities. It features interviews with independent air quality consultant Ed Dearnley, Professor Stephen Young from University of Brighton, Andrew Whittles from Low Emission Strategies Ltd, Hermione Brightwell from Smarter Travel Sutton, Gloria Esposito Former senior sustainability officer at Camden Council, Matt Linnecar from Gnewt Cargo, Samual Smith from the BedZed Development and ERG’s own Dr Ben Barratt and Dr Sean Beavers.
From the web A selection of stories from around the web this month:
Pollutionwatch April 2012 Dr Gary Fuller’s monthly Pollutionwatch series for the Guardian
London >The Mayoral Race The Guardian assesses which Mayoral candidate has the better air quality record The BBC does the same but also interviews Gary Fuller and has a graph The Telegraph talks to Simon Birkett about Boris’s ‘pollution suppressors’ The Guardian talks to Climate Rush about the same How air pollution rose to the top of the Mayoral agenda Mayoral hopefuls call for an independent enquiry into Boris’s air quality strategy Fullfact.org runs a lengthy fact check on Ken’s claims that London has ‘the worst air quality in Europe’ Clean Air in London uses FOI to secure papres showing a battle between City Hall and parliament about the scrapping of the congestion charging western extension Greenpeace and Friends of The Earth rank the candidates ERG’s Dr Ben Barratt talks to the Huffington Post
The Telegraph on London’s air and the Olympics A coalition of London MP’s write to Carilone Spelman MP expressing concerns over the use of dust suppressors The Camden New Journal interviews ERG’s Daniel Marsh about the upcoming air quality sign on Euston Road Shepherd’s Bush Blog uses londonair.org.uk to investigate Shepherds Bush air quality Fitzrovia news blog does the same Ars Technica pens a lengthy and balanced piece on London’s use of CMA (dust suppressors) Interesting Guardian data blog on how London’s road use has changed since 2001 National Traffic pollution kills 5,000 a year in UK says study Air quality is now included on the BBC’s weather pages (modelled by the met office apparently) Defra release their UK air quality forecasting annual report for 2010 The Healthy Air campaign moves to Client Earth, launches new website A new air quality news website is launched Researchers at MIT estimate 13,000 early deaths from air pollution in the UK
International The World Health Organisation publishes new report on the health effects of black carbon How the internet is powering the fight against Beijing’s dirty air A climatologist from NASA writes for the New Scientist of the benefits to climate change and air quality of reducing black carbon emissions The Clean Air Coalition in New York hold their annual dinner and present ‘The Golden Mask Award’
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