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The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

bbc.com

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Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#11

Post by CraigJPerry »

stuaxo wrote: post #6

I hope this will lead to changes in roads in London and other places. The closest school to me in London is next to a busy road with twice the legal level of no2, you can see all the buildings along that road are noticeably blacker from exhaust smoke. While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue, and cares have been getting much bigger over the last 5 years.

>> While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue

In what way are they an issue?

Tyre emissions are around 1/20th of the PM2.5 ejected from the exhaust and the airborne proportion is even smaller.

Edit:

"Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants" has a fairly non-commital "needs more study" finding but they did say "Non-exhaust particulate matter (PM) emissions, ie from brake wear, tyre wear, road surface wear and re-suspended road dust currently comprise just under 10% of UK primary particulate emissions and they are expected to become proportionately more important, as vehicle exhaust PM emissions from road transport are expected to decrease over the coming years"

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#12

Post by nether »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #8

There's a neat feature in the BMW X5 xDrive45e (a petrol plug-in hybrid SUV) - when you enter a low emissions zone, it automatically switches to battery power. Moving emissions away from the tailpipe in heavily populated areas seems like a great idea. There's no free lunch though. The emissions are still happening, just in different places where they're, ideally, less likely to affect people. It's a better situation…

Most forms of municipal power generation are much lower emission than a piston engine. Hydro, wind, and nuclear especially. Just having the generation take place with a near-constant RPM steam turbine is vastly more efficient than a stop-n-go motor.

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#13

Post by xiphias2 »

Asthma from air pollution completely destroyed my life, that's all my life is about at this point.

The first signs are that it's harder to sleep at night, because the mucus goes into your airways. If you feel that, move away far from any street with many cars while you can.

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#14

Post by [deleted] »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #11
stuaxo wrote: post #6

I hope this will lead to changes in roads in London and other places. The closest school to me in London is next to a busy road with twice the legal level of no2, you can see all the buildings along that road are noticeably blacker from exhaust smoke. While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue, and cares have been getting much bigger over the last 5 years.

>> While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue In what way are they an issue? Tyre emissions are around 1/20th of the PM2.5 ejected from the exhaust and the airborne proportion is even smaller. Edit: "Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants" has a fairly non-commital "needs more study" finding but they did say "Non-exhaust particulate matter (PM) emissions, ie from brake…

[deleted]

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#15

Post by xiphias2 »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #11
stuaxo wrote: post #6

I hope this will lead to changes in roads in London and other places. The closest school to me in London is next to a busy road with twice the legal level of no2, you can see all the buildings along that road are noticeably blacker from exhaust smoke. While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue, and cares have been getting much bigger over the last 5 years.

>> While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue In what way are they an issue? Tyre emissions are around 1/20th of the PM2.5 ejected from the exhaust and the airborne proportion is even smaller. Edit: "Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants" has a fairly non-commital "needs more study" finding but they did say "Non-exhaust particulate matter (PM) emissions, ie from brake…

Also PM2.5 is easy to filter out. Any cheap device can filter it out quite efficiently.

For NO2 I tried all the most expensive devices, and none of them worked :(

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#16

Post by JPKab »

I go to London occasionally for work.

Since I live in a high-altitude location, I really enjoy running when I travel, since I can go faster and farther and sight see at the same time.

The amount of diesel exhaust you breathe in running through London is pretty crazy compared to other cities I've been in. And I know that they have worked very hard to reduce this, so not trying to knock the UK or London itself. Just something I noticed and felt running along the Thames.

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#17

Post by qlm »

duckfang wrote: post #9

It is indeed sad that a 9 year old died from purely preventable air pollution. However, through her death and the resulting judgement, we (royal) can start holding polluters and companies liable. And through that, we can start to effect strong climate based change, through a series of steep punishments of wrongful death and the like. I sincerely hope her death is not in vain, but as a loud bell to start a wave of cha…

Sorry for nitpicking on a serious comment, but wouldn't using the royal we here mean that you personally are going to hold polluters and companies liable?

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#18

Post by andylynch »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #11
stuaxo wrote: post #6

I hope this will lead to changes in roads in London and other places. The closest school to me in London is next to a busy road with twice the legal level of no2, you can see all the buildings along that road are noticeably blacker from exhaust smoke. While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue, and cares have been getting much bigger over the last 5 years.

>> While electric cars may help a bit, rubber from breaking and tyres is an issue In what way are they an issue? Tyre emissions are around 1/20th of the PM2.5 ejected from the exhaust and the airborne proportion is even smaller. Edit: "Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants" has a fairly non-commital "needs more study" finding but they did say "Non-exhaust particulate matter (PM) emissions, ie from brake…

New research is also showing that type particles are a far bigger source of pollution in waterways than anyone seems to have expected, both in particulates and dissolved chemicals.

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#19

Post by three_seagrass »

Raphmedia wrote: post #7

The "first"? What did they label all of those? https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/smog-kills-thous...

They're not sure how many people died during that time and can only estimate impact. This little girl's death is directly attributable to the nitrites in the air and lack of prevention.

Re: The first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

#20

Post by paxys »

Raphmedia wrote: post #7

The "first"? What did they label all of those? https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/smog-kills-thous...

My guess is whatever the immediate cause was - accidents, CO poisoning, pre-existing respiratory problems, flu.
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