On Air: interview with Camden’s Katie Watson

In the first of a new series of interviews with air quality professionals across London and the South East, we talk to Camden’s new air quality officer Katie Watson about the upcoming joint air quality summit with Islington.



(King’s) - Can you give us a bit of background to next month’s air quality summit?
(KW) - Official estimates suggest that 29,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2008 were attributable to long-term exposure to man made air pollution, which also made a smaller contribution in another 200,000 early deaths.
In order to improve the air quality in our boroughs, and the health of those who live in, work in and travel through them, LB Camden and Islington are hosting a joint public air quality summit this month. A range of expert speakers will provide attendees with the facts about air pollution in an accessible and clear manner.
(King’s) - What are some of the air quality challenges that Camden and Islington, as inner-city London boroughs face?
(KW) - Camden and Islington are working together to deliver this summit because, as inner London boroughs, we face many of the same air quality challenges. Both boroughs have high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter and we hope that by working together we can raise awareness of these problems and try to reduce levels of these pollutants in our boroughs.
(King’s) - What do you hope the summit will achieve?
(KW) - We hope that attendees will learn about the health impacts of air pollution and how they can protect themselves from the worst exposure to pollutants. We will also be discussing the actions which can be taken at a regional, local, organisational and individual level to reduce air pollution.

Our thanks to Katie for speaking to us this month.

The summit is taking place on November 21st at Camden Town Hall from 5-8:30pm.

Speakers at the event include:
Isabel Dedring, Mayor of London’s Environment Advisor
Professor Frank Kelly, Kings College London
Simon Birkett, Founder, Clean Air London
James Grugeon, CEO, Environmental Protection UK
Sir Roger Madelin, CEO, Argent

> Sign up for a place at the event here.
> Download a copy of the leaflet here.

King’s take to the skies

Throughout October staff at King’s took to the air to measure pollution levels above London. Results of this airborne measurement campaign will help to quantify the emissions of pollutants from sources within London and interpret the transport of its urban plume in relation to different weather patterns.

A series of flights were undertaken in collaboration with the Catalan Institute for Climate Science using NERC’s Airborne Research and Survey Facility, crossing London at a height of around 350 metres - only a little higher than new London Shard.

High resolution measurements of carbon dioxide, black carbon, ozone and particle number were recorded on each flight along with a range of meteorological and remote sensing parameters. It is believed that this is the first time such measurements have been taken over central London.

Dr Ben Barratt, who undertook the flights with Anna Font and Josep Anton Morgui said “These measurements will increase our understanding of how pollutants emitted within London disperse within the atmospheric boundary layer and interact with the troposphere above. We were extremely fortunate to be granted permission to take measurements in such a sensitive part of the UK’s airspace.”

The flights were funded by NERC in support of the Clean Air for London (ClearfLo) research campaign. An application has been made to repeat the flights in 2012 to coincide with ClearfLo’s intensive (ground based) sampling campaigns.

London Air Chrome extension featured on Chrome web store front page

Just a few weeks after King’s launched their new London Air Android and Chrome apps we are delighted to have been chosen by Google to be featured on the front page of the Chrome web store.

The web store front page is a prime location for users seeking out new extensions and this exposure sees the London Air extension sitting alongside applications from the BBC, Google, Tesco and of course Angry Birds.

If you haven't already installed our newest creation you can download it from the link below.

Openair update

A new version of the openair R package has just been released together with a newsletter and an updated manual.

A recent addition to the openair package is the availability of pre-calculated back trajectories using the NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) HYSPLIT trajectory model. The HYSPLIT model has been used to calculate 96-hour back trajectories every 3 hours for a range of sites around the UK for the past 20 years or so. The processed data are stored on King’s servers and can be accessed with a simple, single line command using openair.

There are also new functions for plotting and manipulating trajectories and these can be combined with air pollution data to investigate the origins of high concentrations e.g. during pollution episodes. Many more techniques for working with trajectories and more sites will be added to the openair package soon.

> Read the latest openair newsletter here.
> Download the updated manual here.
> Read a pre-print of an openair journal article shortly to be published in Environmental Modelling & Software here.

EPUK launching black carbon campaign

Environmental Protection UK have announced they are launching a new air quality campaign specifically focussed on black carbon.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the role black carbon plays in air pollution and also as a climate change agent. It seeks to encourage the Government to adopt demanding targets for the reduction of this pollutant.

A launch event which brings together industry, regulators and local government is planned for later in the year.
Keep up to date with the latest developments on the website blackcarbon.org.uk

King’s Dr Thomas Kuhlbusch interviewed on BBC

Visiting scientist at King’s Dr Thomas Kuhlbusch was recently interviewed for a piece on the BBC about the new green walls sprouting up around London.

The green walls are one of the initiatives to emerge from a £5m 'clean air fund' which TfL received from central Government to try and tackle London’s air quality problems and avoid potential EU fines.

Towards the 2013 revision of the ambient air quality directive

It is now ten years since the air quality daughter directives were introduced and six years since the launch of the EU Thematic Strategy on air pollution. However, many air pollution challenges remain within Europe

Across Europe pollution concentrations are not falling as fast as expected and member states are therefore experiencing difficulties with attainment of Limit and Target Values for nitrogen dioxide, ozone and PM₁₀. It is clear that large gaps remain in our understanding of emission sources and their linkage to ambient concentrations.

A forthcoming conference hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry will bring together leading scientists and policy makers. The event will provide a broad and up-to-date survey of the measurement, regulatory and scientific issues, including policy implications, health effects and future perspectives as we prepare for the review of the Ambient Air Quality Directive in 2013.

View the full conference details here.

London Air soundslides now available on YouTube and Vimeo

The recent update to the LondonAir website features a set of ten Soundslide videos which feature interviews with professionals from across the air quality community as well as interviews with Londoners on a wide range or air quality subjects.

We are pleased to say that all of these videos have now been encoded and uploaded to our YouTube and Vimeo accounts. This means they can now be easily embedded and shared in external websites and used as a resource by all our clients and colleagues.

> LondonAir on YouTube
> LondonAir on Vimeo

Soundslide: Fireworks and air pollution

As we approach the 5th of November, this month’s featured video looks at the effects of fireworks and bonfires on London’s air pollution.

The video features interviews with Londoners, King’s Krystal Godri, Dr Gary Fuller and Professor Frank Kelly.

From the web

A selection of stories from around the web this month:

Pollutionwatch October 2011 Dr Gary Fuller’s monthly Pollutionwatch series for the Guardian.

Southampton University study finds trees remove PM₁₀ from the air
    >The published paper
TfL encourages van and minibus owners to get ready for LEZ phase 3
UK Electric car sales disappoint.
    >US electric car sales seem to be doing better
    >The Mayor checks out an electric supercar in London
The Transport Select Committee considers sulphur emissions from shipping
The London Assembly’s Environment Committee assesses Heathrow’s air and noise pollution progress
Ecoigo - Prius only taxi service in London launch iPhone app
Ruth Calderwood from City of London calls on TfL to allow business accounts for Boris Bikes
    >City of London’s CityAir website
TfL seeks a partner to help upgrade London’s taxi fleet to Euro 5 standard
Particulate filter firm threatens to leave UK over 'weak' air quality plans

International
Copenhagen considers congestion charge
The University of Santiago writes on the contribution of wood burning to urban air pollution
Shenyang, China. One city’s remarkable air quality clean-up
Study suggests smoke from indoor cooking kills 2m a year globally
Does the effect of air pollution cost more than the economic gain from it’s production?
    >A critique of the paper in Forbes magazine

And Finally:
Air pollution.... through the medium of interpretive dance
Air quality problems in East London.... East London, South Africa
Who needs air quality monitoring and research when you have Yahoo answers