Breathing easier because of UK lockdown
The current situation, though dreadful in so many ways and keeping us from driving as much as usual, does offer some small benefits.
EVERYTHING IS more peaceful so I am more aware of the birds singing this spring than I have ever been.
The sky is clearer and so looking at stars is better. Not least the air is cleaner, my friend Cath, who has asthma, can feel the difference; she finds it easier to breathe. That is hardly surprising as levels of harmful nitrogen oxides known as NOx, which come mainly from vehicles, are down by around 50 per cent compared to this time last year.
It is estimated that there are around 1,750 fewer deaths in the UK as a result of the cleaner air during the period of the lockdown. While that is overshadowed by the deaths from Covid 19, it is still an awful lot of people. What is more, around 1,000 children will not develop asthma who would have otherwise, and there will be about 100 fewer preterm births.
Is that surprising? Maybe not if I tell you that the number of deaths that result from poor air quality each year is reckoned to be around 30,000 to 40,000 in the UK. This is people with preexisting conditions whose life is shortened by poor air quality.
That is more than the number of people who have died from coronavirus so far. And that happens every year.
Does this sound impossible? Just think of how many children you know who have asthma and have to carry their inhaler around with them. Poor air quality affects not only people with asthma and breathing problems, in fact most linked deaths will be from coronary heart disease.
It also affects resistance to disease and may be involved with Alzheimer’s.
Thanks to the coronavirus we now have an idea what a world with less pollution would be like to live in: quieter, calmer, cleaner – with less room for cars and more room for pedestrians, cyclists and children.
In many cities around the world they are closing down streets to vehicles to allow people more room to exercise while keeping social distancing.
The other thing the epidemic has taught us is that we can, as a country, a region, a locality or as individuals, achieve what we really want to, what we choose to achieve.
I think we all know that we will have to invest in jobs and industry to get the country going again.
Why not put that investment in green technology, which is the way forward and where our future must lie, rather than in the old technologies that got us into a world that is dangerously heating up?
Not only does it make sense economically, it will also lead us to a country that is cleaner, healthier and better to live in. The greatest benefit would be felt in our inner cities where the poorest often live. And we might spare ourselves (and the NHS) an epidemic-load of deaths every year along the way.