The recently updated London Air website has won first place in Air Quality Bulletin’s annual website review for the second year running.

Each year the magazine reviews over 500 air quality websites in the UK divided into categories for companies, council consortia, pressure groups, central government and non-council.

We were very happy to be awarded first place again in the non-council category after a major update to the site and our apps in preparation for the Olympics.

Air Quality Bulletin said:

"Going heavy on the Olympics gives the site extra poignancy and it is hard to think of any other air quality website which is a pleasure to keep returning to."

We are always looking for ways to improve our website and dissemination services. If you have any suggestions please contact us and let us know.

Each night from the 9th to 28th October a major new artwork by the Dryden Goodwin will be exhibited as part of 'Invisible Breath' a series of commissions by the arts group Invisible Dust.

The artwork will take the form of a large scale outdoor projection on St Thomas' Hospital showing an animation of a sketched young boy breathing.

King's Professor Frank Kelly is an advisor to the 'Breathe' project and King's and Invisible Dust have worked closely on the EXHALE project over the last 4 years mixing art and science as part of our schools education work and to further the public understanding of air pollution issues.

Scientists are terrible at writing about art so I'll hand over to Invisible Dust curator Alice Sharp to properly describe the piece.

"The act of breath embodies the transcoding of air – from the ethereal to solid, the invisible to the concrete, the fluid to the dense.  Breath, animated by the vibrations of billions of airborne molecules, floating particles and fibers of the human body, is an elemental poetry: it is one of the most beautiful encounters between living bodies and the living world.

Dryden Goodwin’s Breathe is an evocation of this poetry.  He has created over a thousand drawings of a five year old boy (his son) inhaling and exhaling air.  But their most startling quality is their ability to evoke the materiality – the heaviness – of the invisible.  In Goodwin’s works, air is not unremarkable, transient or still.  Rather, air is an object that permeates the human figure, carrying with it the incredibly diverse and even harmful residues of the city of London."

Breathe will be launched on Monday October 8th at St Thomas' Hospital 6:30pm - 8:30pm and  Air Mail readers are invited to the launch,  please email bianca@invisibledust.com with 'Houses RSVP' for your reservation.

On October 16th, Dryden Goodwin will be hosted by the Environmental Audit Committee to discuss his work. Professor Frank Kelly will also be discussing the impact of air pollution on children's health, the discussion will be chaired by the committee chair Joan Walley MP.

Speaking of collaborations with artists, in June, King's Andrew Grieve sat down with final year Goldsmith's student Elvira Grob to discuss the problems of air pollution in London, specifically the problems of sensing modern air pollution.

Elvira explored this concept for her final year show  and produced a futuristic take on the canary in the coal mine concept - Vitiosea Vigilis.

Again in Elvira's own words:

"Vitiosae vigilis is a synthetic animal from the future. It’s an environmental sentinel created to work as a human enhancement to sense the invisible pollution in the air. This companion is a wearable bio-monitor, that breathes the same air as it’s owner. Since this organism is much weaker than humans, it reveals the effects of long-time exposure to air pollution in less time.

Vitiosae vigilis is inspired by the “canary in the coal mine” to speculatively explore the use of personal living biomonitors. The suffering companion is questioned as a way to stimulate human emotional responses to threatening health issues, going beyond the lack of empathy provided by non-living monitors."

Collaborations between artists and scientists are continuing to challenge our thinking and the way we perceive air pollution.  Collaborations across disciplines are an important way of creating new concepts and fresh thinking in problems like air pollution.

The monitoring team at King's recently hosted a visit by an air quality delegation from South Korea. The visit by eight members of the Institute of Health and the Environment of Seoul Metropolitan City was arranged by the London Embassy of the Republic of Korea in conjunction with King's.

The delegation were keen to find out more about the London Air Quality Network (LAQN) and the integration of monitoring, modelling, toxicology, policy and health research conducted at Kings.

The extent and unique structure of the network were discussed during the meeting as, unlike most metropolitan networks which are centrally run, King's partners with each individual local authority to create a larger network which benefits London as a whole.

Particular emphasis was also given to the number of background comparison sites in London and their importance in assessing individual roadside hotspot monitoring locations. The steps taken to ensure data comparability and reliability were also covered in depth with a explanation of the different roles involved in the UK network; site operators, data managers, equipment service units and independent audit bodies.

Although the makeup and administration of the London networks differ from Korea, many of the problems the cities face are the same and the pollution contribution from car exhausts and trends in the different pollutants was discussed in some detail.

This is the latest in a series of visits by international air quality delegations and King's are proud to champion the network and the partnerships which make up this unique resource.

The latest edition of the openair newsletter has been published detailing all the changes to the package over the last six months.

Openair is an air pollution analysis package developed by Dr David Carslaw in the Science Policy unit at King's and makes it easy to carry out sophisticated analyses on large air pollution data sets quickly, in an interactive and reproducible way.

The latest updates include changes to calendarPlot to allow user- defined categorical scales, which has been requested by many users. Other changes include the ability of pollutionRose to compare two meteorological data sets, more enhancements to trajectory plotting functions and many other smaller changes and bug fixes.

An update to the user manual has also been released alongside a pre-print of the openair paper  written for the journal Environmental Modelling & Software on the topic of cluster analysis applied to bivariate polar plots.

Finally, our Spanish readers will be pleased to know that a Spanish version of the user guide has been published by Fernando Follos Pliego.

The MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health are pleased to invite you to attend a two day International Symposium held in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU); established following a recommendation of the Black enquiry into the incidence of leukaemia in children and young adults near the Sellafield nuclear plant.

The theme of this international symposium will be forward-looking, discussing new methods and technologies in disease cluster and pattern detection, spatial data analysis, data visualisation, measurement of exposures and health risks, communicating with the public and translating science into health policy.

This meeting will be comprised of plenary sessions, state of the art lectures and poster presentations and will offer individuals the opportunity to work alongside and share knowledge with international experts.

The MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health welcome the submission of abstracts for presentation in an evening poster session and drinks reception.

The two day symposium will open with an address by Professor Dame Sally Davies UK Chief Medical Officer & Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health, and close with the second annual Geoffrey Rose Memorial Lecture which will be given by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London.

For the full programme and to register please visit http://tinyurl.com/SAHSU

You may have spotted the billboards around town showing  pictures of ventolin inhalers, lungs and hearts as key fobs. These are part of a major drive by the Mayor of London to encourage drivers to cut their engine instead of idling when parked.

The link between air pollution and lungs is one the public are most aware of but the campaign also highlights the link to heart disease which is one people are less aware of.

The campaign is part of the £5m 'Clean Air Fund' received from central government to tackle London's pollution in a bid to avoid fines from the European Union. Spraying polluted roads with Calcium Magnesium Acetate glue (CMA) and green walls (featured in previous editions of Air Mail) have also been funded from the Clean Air fund. 

The anti-idling campaign is backed by a wide range of resources all linked to from the front page of the TFL website including downloads of all three posters, an idling myths vs facts booklet, tips for businesses looking to reduce idling in their fleet and a fuel savings calculator amongst others.

A press release on the TfL's website states that the campaign has resulted in a decrease in idling in London of 5%.

Read the press release here.

Access the campaign resources on TFL's website here.

The Mayor has also teamed up with the London Sustainability Exchange to launch a free Cleaner Air 4 Schools Toolkit for primary schools in London. The toolkit includes citizen science activities to measure local air pollution and offers practical information on reducing pupil and teacher exposure. Packed full of information and resources, it is hoped that the toolkit will help schools raise awareness of air quality issues in London and encourage behavioural change.

www.london.gov.uk/cleanairschools

A selection of stories from around the web this month:

• Pollutionwatch September 2012 - Dr Gary Fuller's monthly series for the Guardian

Our picks

• Major new report from the European Environment Agency
• > Full text of Janez Potočnik's speech launching the report 
• > The Guardian covers it
• > The Chicago Tribune covers it
• A fantastic guide to reducing kids exposure on school journeys

London

• Clearflo Olympics update
• Mayor blocks new Croydon waste incinerator
• TfL welcomes 'Largest fleet of hybrid buses in Europe'
• Mayor agrees to a review of the Congestion Charge ‘Greener Vehicle Discount’
• A preview of the new NV200 black London cab
• Local campaign group 'Better Archway Forum' carry out NO2 diffusion tube study in Islington

UK

• Lib Dem Euro MEP demands action on Gloucestershire hot spot
• Defra releases government Red Tape Challenge - Environment Implementation Plan
• New report from HPA considers risks of climate change to air quality

International

• Researchers at Berkley University map pollution chromagraphs to sound waves to 'hear' pollution
• Paper: Adverse respiratory effects of outdoor air pollution in the elderly
• Can green walls really cut street pollution by half?
• Group who pioneered citizen science measurements of radiation in Japan win grant to do the same for pollution
• iSPEX - measure aerosols with your smartphone
• > How it works
• The Economist writes on new environmental appointment in Hong Kong
• Strict new air quality regulators in New Zealand
• PM10 levels in Germany mapped and animated
• 405 freeway closure in LA sees 83% drop in pollution levels
• Air quality in Ireland - 'Best in Europe'
• European Environment Agency release new detailed maps of air quality in Europe
• Effects of congestion charging over time in Stockholm
• Burgers more polluting than 18-wheelers?

And Finally

• Clean your clothes and the air at the same time