The seminar is held every year at King’s and features the latest research and thinking on air quality not only in London, but also at a national and international level.

The morning and afternoon sessions will be chaired by Professor Frank Kelly from King’s and Sarah Honor from Defra. This year we are also very pleased to welcome Dr Daniela Fecht, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, as our guest speaker.

The seminar is free to our funding organisations, project partners, researchers and collaborators. Representatives of other organisations are welcome to attend at a charge of £85 +VAT per person.

You can see the full agenda here.

If you wish to attend please email Valentina Lotti (valentina.lotti@kcl.ac.uk)

Marina Laube, a researcher at the institute, is investigating how users of the app alter their mobility patterns in response to air pollution notifications and information.

Users will be prompted to answer a survey on how they travel in the City and whether advance notice of elevated pollution, such as early warnings of elevated ozone or particulate levels of the type provided by the new Daily Air Quality Index, affect users choices of travel route or transport mode.

The app will be launched over the weekend and Marina will be collating and analysing the results over the summer as part of her MSc.

New research like this is only possible thanks to the participation of the London boroughs who make up the LAQN and we thank them for their continued support.

You can see the survey here - but don’t answer if you’re not a user of the app!

King’s were contacted by the Health Protection Agency on Monday morning, as part of a working partnership to provide a quick response to and analysis of large fires and other events which have the potential to affect public health.

The London Fire Brigade reported sending 12 engines and 60 firefighters to the blaze. The fire started just before 03:30 and was under control by 07:00.

Using wind speed and direction, mixing height and temperature data provided by the MET office, staff at King’s were able to analyse data from LAQN monitoring stations in the affected area to determine plume grounding impact across London.

LAQN monitoring sites in Southwark, Lewisham , Wandsworth and Richmond all recorded peaks in particulate pollution with concentrations decreasing as the plume dispersed west. Peak levels of 632 ug/m3 for PM10 particulate (as an hourly reading) were recorded in Southwark, closest to the fire. This compared to a background reading at the time of around 34 ug/m3 across London.

The plume grounding recorded at Southwark contributed around 34 ug/m3 to the daily average of 77ug/m3 resulting in a ‘high’ banding for PM10. At the Lewisham site the plume contributed around 18ug/m3 to the daily average of 53.9ug/m3 and resulted in ‘moderate’ PM10

The ability to analyse and quantify the scale of events such as these over large areas is possible because the London Air Quality Network exists and we thank our partners and collaborators for their continued participation in it.

Photo Credit: Phil Fastlane @Topspeed007 on Twitter

This is the first time that ‘high’ ozone has been measured in the south east this year.

In the previous air quality index, the averaging period used to classify ozone as ‘high’ was based on an hourly average and was generally recorded on ozone peaks of a few hours in the afternoon.

The move to classifying ozone exposure as ‘high’ based on an 8 hour rolling average in the new Daily Air Quality Index means that ‘high’ ozone levels are less likely to be recorded as the strong sunlight required to drive photochemistry over this sustained period happens more rarely (insert your own joke about british weather here..)

The new DAQI also introduced the concept of triggers as a way of predicting elevated pollution levels before they happen. This is achieved by constantly analysing the profile of pollutants during the day. 

King’s have fully implemented the DAQI, and on Monday the triggers worked correctly and provided four hours advance warning before high pollution exposure was reached in Sevenoaks.

Gary Fuller of King’s College said, "The ability of the new index to correctly predict high ozone exposure is a major step forward in public information, allowing us to provide advance warning to vulnerable people via our smartphone and web applications. This demonstrates the clear benefits of the fully implementing Defra’s new index."

The health impacts of pollution episodes and a presentation on the inner-workings of the new DAQI will be topics at this year’s LAQN seminar.

Recognition of the contribution that vehicle emissions have on local air pollution and climate change requires an increased understanding of the nature and quantity of such emissions, which in turn will aid their control and reduction. Transport is the only sector of the UK economy for which current greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) (estimated at 121 Mt CO2 or 26% of total CO2 emissions), are greater now than in 1990.

However, such estimates are based on the consumption of fossil fuels rather than direct measurements of the emissions themselves,  whilst current and future mitigation strategies require greater accuracy and precision to quantify progress objectively.

King’s have implemented a fixed, long-term continuous CO2 monitoring network at ground level across Greater London with the aim of quantifying vehicle exhaust CO2 emissions and trends. The network comprises of a combination of three roadside and two urban background monitoring sites across an East-West transect of London, at locations existent on the London Air Quality Network.

The poster below describes the methods used to separate traffic-led CO2 emissions from background sources and how these emissions vary depending on fleet makeup and location. This research forms part of a Phd which Max is undertaking part time over the next few years whilst working in ERG.

See the poster here.

agreement to update the ‘Gothenburg Protocol’, setting more ambitious targets to reduce trans-boundary air pollution across the northern hemisphere.

The Executive Body of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) have revised objectives for the Protocol that will see a reduction in EU emissions of around 60 per cent for sulphur, 40 per cent for nitrogen oxides, 30 per cent for volatile organic compounds, 6 per cent for ammonia and 20 per cent for particulate matter by 2020 compared with 2005.

The revised text of the Protocol includes national emission reduction commitments for main air pollutants to be achieved by 2020 and beyond. An emission ceiling for fine particulate matter – the pollutant whose ambient air concentrations notoriously exceed air quality standards throughout Europe – will be included for the first time. It also sets tight limits for specific emission sources such as electricity production, cars and lorries.

Professor Martin Williams, Chairman of the Executive Body, said: ‘We made several important strides in a historic agreement last week in Geneva where Parties to the Gothenburg Protocol agreed an amended version, breaking new ground in three important areas.’

‘It is the first international treaty to deal with the so-called ‘short-lived climate pollutants’ – toxic air pollutants which can also significantly affect the earth’s climate; secondly, for the first time, an international agreement sets emission ceilings for PM2.5 the most important air pollutant in terms of human health; thirdly the agreement should be sufficiently flexible that Eastern European countries, including the Russian Federation should be able to join the Protocol, which already includes the 27 EU countries, Norway, Switzerland and the USA among others.’

It is hoped the new revisions will have a major global impact on health, the environment and climate change.

The plan outlines several measures Brent Council aims to take to tackle NO2 and PM10 pollution in the borough including integrating air quality decision making into the emerging borough public health role, ensuring new developments are ‘air quality neutral’, continuing to roll out electric charging points and working with businesses to encourage energy efficiency and improvement to fleets.

Of particular concern in Brent is the waste management facility on Neasden Lane which recently breached the annual target for PM10 under the National Air Quality Strategy.

The council plans to lobby central Government to improve the way licensing of waste management facilities is conducted.

The report concludes:

“We recognise that not all air quality improvements can be delivered directly by our actions and a particular area of concern is the licensing of waste facilities such as those on Neasden Lane. Current national and London-wide policies seek to promote greater recycling, reuse and energy reclamation from waste. It is likely that these pressures will result in more waste infrastructure in Brent. (Brent) will seek to ensure that further development of waste infrastructure does not result in more pollution in Brent. This will be achieved by continuing to strengthen and deepen our working relationships with the Environment Agency, Defra and the GLA as well as lobbying for improvements in the relevant licensing regimes.”

A newsletter has also been released to go with the update which focuses on the use of cluster analysis in polar plots to better extract and quantify interesting features and back trajectory cluster analysis based on HYSPLIT back trajectories.

You can read the newsletter here.

Head over to www.openair-project.org for the new user manual and to sign up for the newsletters.

The project, which is part of a Defra local authority grant with the City of London, Ealing, Southwark and the University of Newcastle, aims to better characterise in-use emissions from vehicles.

The project is making use of unique experimental equipment from the University of Denver, developed by Professor Donald Stedman and is based on vehicle emission remote sensing.  This has the enormous benefit of sampling the exhausts of thousands of passing vehicles a day.

The measurements provide information on emissions of CO, NO, NO2, SO2, hydrocarbons, ammonia and a measure of particles. By linking these to very detailed information on individual vehicles (such as fuel type, age, engine size etc.) a much improved understanding of vehicle emissions will be developed; particularly concerning those of NOx and NO2.

Such information is of critical importance for developing a more robust understanding of vehicle emissions by vehicle type - which will help improve the management of air pollution in London and elsewhere. The project will continue for approximately 6 weeks.

For further information please contact Dr David Carslaw (david.carslaw@kcl.ac.uk)

From the web

A selection of stories from around the web this month:

Pollutionwatch May 2012 - Dr Gary Fuller’s monthly Pollutionwatch series for the Guardian

London

1. Judge dismisses Client Earth's case against government, case may go to European Comission

 > Client Earth’s response

2. London Ambulance report their busiest ever day on May 22nd, increase in respiratory & cardiovascular complaints
3. Private & public sector meet for 'A Cleaner Future' conference on air quality management
4. Business Green ponders Boris's second term on environment
5. New environment adviser appointed at City Hall
6. Twins sought for air quality and health study

International

1. Cutting air pollution has instant effect on health Beijing olympics study shows
2. Regulating traffic to reduce air pollution in Greater Cairo
3. Car-free Sunday’s in Bogota benefit health and air quality