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Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

bbc.com

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Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#51

Post by simonsquiff »

XorNot wrote: post #5

So punchline, probably a good idea to electrify all the cars yeah?

100%, and not just due to no emissions / minimal break dust. The noise reduction is a massive dividend. I used to live in london 10+ years ago, and when I come back I’m stunned by the noise difference, it really is so much quieter especially in central london. EVs everywhere especially replacing the horribly noisy diesel black cabs and buses. Very noticeably different and much more pleasant, and improving all the time as EV adoption continues to accelerate, hooray

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#52

Post by tarkasteve »

stuaxo wrote: post #2

I've needed my inhaler way less since the ULEZ came in. Visiting London used to mean blowing your nose to black snot for a week afterwards, these days living in London it's pretty good.

ULEZ massively reduced the amount of NO2, which is a trigger for asthma. It also seems to have reduced the hospital admissions for heart related emergencies.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75q9d2pqyeo https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/12/emergenc...

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#53

Post by JayShower »

roughly wrote: post #11
ecshafer wrote: post #3

Anecdata I was living very close to a busy highway, and my young daughter was wheazing when she had a cold, we had to give her medicine via a nebulizer. When we moved out to the country more, far away from any major roads, these issues all disappeared within a couple months.

A friend of mine does research on air pollution from cars - the TL;DR is you should not live within a third of a mile of a highway. The falloff is pretty sharp, but you don't want to be in that zone.

What about biking near a highway? E.g. in Chicago the lakeshore bike trail is next to a busy 8 lane highway

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#54

Post by masklinn »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #46
tony69 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like they do it on purpose rubbing hands

Housing development happens at random?

Plus the US literally built highways in the middle of poor neighbourhoods.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#55

Post by 6LLvveMx2koXfwn »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #40
jimbob45 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t solve brake and tire particles. Although…rail might solve those?

EVs use regenerative braking. So they hardly produce any brake particulates. And the tire particulates are heavy so they don't stay airborn for nearly as long. At low speeds, tires don't wear out as quickly. Europe has quite a few cities where traffic is increasingly discouraged from going to the inner cities. Cities like Paris and London are much transformed from what they used to be and it shows in the health stati…

There is a generator at the end of my street in a shipping container sized metal box, it also has a mini office and loo, and is used by the construction workers digging holes in the road. It has company spiel written on the side, promoting the box's environmental credentials, including the punchline: 'Zero NOX when generator not in use'.

No shit Sherlock.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#56

Post by theplumber »

JayShower wrote: post #53
roughly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine does research on air pollution from cars - the TL;DR is you should not live within a third of a mile of a highway. The falloff is pretty sharp, but you don't want to be in that zone.

What about biking near a highway? E.g. in Chicago the lakeshore bike trail is next to a busy 8 lane highway

I remember I’ve read somewhere that jogging is actually net harmful for health in the city due the air pollution.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#57

Post by smcin »

roughly wrote: post #11
ecshafer wrote: post #3

Anecdata I was living very close to a busy highway, and my young daughter was wheazing when she had a cold, we had to give her medicine via a nebulizer. When we moved out to the country more, far away from any major roads, these issues all disappeared within a couple months.

A friend of mine does research on air pollution from cars - the TL;DR is you should not live within a third of a mile of a highway. The falloff is pretty sharp, but you don't want to be in that zone.

Doesn't it depend on the mix of diesel/petrol/electric? In particular many cities ban or restrict diesel.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#58

Post by masklinn »

jimbob45 wrote: post #7
XorNot wrote: post #5

So punchline, probably a good idea to electrify all the cars yeah?

That doesn’t solve brake and tire particles. Although…rail might solve those?

> That doesn’t solve brake and tire particles.

Regen braking means significantly less brake dust, especially at city speeds and with blended braking.

> Although…rail might solve those?

Trains still have brakes. Some can regen brake but because they usually don’t have batteries they need the rail or overhead gantry to support inputs.

But on a passenger-mile basis, I expect an electric train produces essentially no particulates compared to a car, even a light rail on tyres. I do not however have numbers.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#59

Post by danielheath »

smcin wrote: post #57
roughly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine does research on air pollution from cars - the TL;DR is you should not live within a third of a mile of a highway. The falloff is pretty sharp, but you don't want to be in that zone.

Doesn't it depend on the mix of diesel/petrol/electric? In particular many cities ban or restrict diesel.

Tyre pollution is significant regardless of fuel source.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#60

Post by Aurornis »

ecshafer wrote: post #3

Anecdata I was living very close to a busy highway, and my young daughter was wheazing when she had a cold, we had to give her medicine via a nebulizer. When we moved out to the country more, far away from any major roads, these issues all disappeared within a couple months.

Living very close to busy highways is known to generate poor air quality. I recommend anyone in those locations buy an air purifier for their kids' rooms.

I bought a couple reasonably priced HEPA purifiers and I change the filters on schedule. Replacement HEPA filters are very cheap.

Also watch out for things that we do indoors that can generate bad air quality. I had a friend who bought a VOC meter and noticed very high readings in his kid's room. He traced the source to his chemical and paint cabinet nearby, which he never considered because he couldn't smell anything. Throwing out a lot of the old containers dropped the measurements to the unmeasurable range.

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