269 schools in pollUtion hotspots
THE STATE OF THE AIR OUR CHILDREN BREATHE IS REVEALED ON CLEAN AIR DAY
ALMOST 270 schools and nurseries in Bristol and the surrounding areas are in places where air breaches World Health Organisation (WHO) limits for pollution, a charity has said.
According to data from Earthsense, a charity marking Clean Air Day yesterday there are 269 schools in the Bristol postcode area where air quality exceeds pollution limits for poisonous chemical particles.
Earthsense said the data they collected is “the most comprehensive and up-to-date sample of air pollution taken from schools across the UK”, based on 2019 figures, before the Covid pandemic.
With traffic levels now almost back to pre-Covid levels, EarthSense said that, across the country, 3.4 million children are learning in “an unhealthy environment”.
The WHO rules cover specific levels of nitrogen dioxide particles known as PM2.5s. These tiny particles can cause long-term respiratory disease, heart problems and cancer, and come from burning fuels and other materials, including vehicle exhausts, solid fuel stoves, home burners, agricultural emissions and even dust from car brake pads.
A spokesperson said: “The charity reviewed the air quality outside schools because children are particularly vulnerable to its impacts and spend a significant amount of time at school.
“Starting in the womb, toxic air can harm children’s health, causing or triggering asthma, damaging lung development, and as revealed on Clean Air Day 2020, it can even affect their ability to learn.”
The director of public health at the WHO since 2005 is Dr Maria Neira. She said the study showed pollution levels were harming children’s health.
“These figures are unequivocally too high and harming children’s health,” she said.
“Schools should be safe places of learning, not places where students are at risk of health hazards. There
These figures are unequivocally too high and harming children’s health Dr Maria Neira
is no safe level of air pollution, and if we care about our children and their future, air pollution limits should reflect WHO guidelines.”
Across the country, more than a quarter of schools in the UK had children breathing polluted air.
Larissa Lockwood, director of clean air at Global Action Plan, which is organising Clean Air Day, said: “The fact that 27 per cent of UK schools are above WHO air pollution limits is extremely alarming.
“Air pollution is not a fact of life. If we all do our bit, it can be solved with collaborative action and education.”
Teachers and headteachers have also called for action to combat air pollution around schools.
Sarah Hannafin, policy advisor for the National Association for Head Teachers (NAHT) said adults needed to change.
“One thing the Covid-19 crisis has shown us is that we can do things differently,” she said.
“As we now begin to try and return to a more normal way of life it’s important we don’t just automatically take up old habits but try to use this opportunity to find better options, for ourselves and the planet.
“The impact of the pandemic on children has been huge; we need to do everything we can to make sure we safeguard their futures. One vital way of doing that is to ensure they return to a safe, clean and healthy environment where they can learn, play and thrive.”
In Bristol, the city council is bringing in a Clean Air Zone scheme which will charge drivers of more polluting diesel vehicles and older petrol-powered vehicles a fixed fee for driving into the city centre.
There have also been, sparked by the Covid pandemic and the 2020 drop in vehicles on the road, the closure of Bristol Bridge to private vehicles, and a few more cycle lanes temporarily created in busy locations like the Clifton Triangle and Lewins Mead.
The city council has also signed a ‘bus deal’ with operators First Bus to begin replacing older, diesel buses with Euro6 or biogas buses, to cut the most harmful of the diesel pollutants.
A similar Clean Air Zone scheme is already in place in Bath city centre.
It is not the first time research has concluded that a significant number of children in Bristol are going to schools where the air quality is poor.
Greenpeace tested air quality at schools around Bristol and found five schools and eight nurseries located within 150 metres of roads where the level of nitrogen dioxide from diesel traffic exceeds the legal limit of 40.0ug/m3.
Most of these were close to the M32 in Easton or St Pauls, the A4 in Brislington and the M5 in Shirehampton.
Life at the bottom of the M32 featured as an election issue in some of the city’s most polluted wards, including Lawrence Hill and St Pauls, while the Government has recently begun tackling the growing amount of air pollution caused by log burners.