Guest post from Mums for Lungs: "The UK has a higher rate of childhood asthma than any other country in Europe"

[JuliaMumsnet]

Today is Clean Air Day. We know from conversations on Mumsnet that parents are worried about air pollution. In our survey, over half (54%) of parents said that they are ‘quite’ or ‘extremely worried’. This jumps up to 66% for parents who live in urban areas and 80% for those who live in London or Greater London. On our forums, we see worries about this driving decisions about nurseries, primary schools and even house moves. In a legal first, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah recently successfully campaigned for air pollution to be listed as the main cause of death on her daughter Ella's death certificate. A guest post by Ruth Fitzharris, from Mums for Lungs:

"It is June 2021 and we are making tentative steps back into a world of full social interaction. This week I am looking forward to a cuppa with another mum while the kids play in the garden. But one worry never leaves me – air pollution. More cars back on the roads means more air pollution too. Today is Clean Air Day, developed to remind us all that air pollution is one of the biggest health and environmental risks of our time. In the UK between 36,000 and 64,000 people are estimated to die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution as it contributes to so many illnesses from cradle to grave: asthma, dementia, cancer, mental health illnesses and more.

I first became interested in air pollution around the third time my son had been admitted to hospital with viral induced wheeze during the heatwave of 2018. His treatment involved having a cannula inserted in both hands, heart monitors on his chest and oxygen tubes in his nose, and hourly inhalers. I stayed beside him in the bed, trying to keep all the wires in place and comfort him. A respiratory consultant advised us to walk back street routes when possible, to avoid polluted and congested streets. They explained that air pollution causes an inflammation of the lungs that makes wheeze or asthma attacks more likely and more severe, should my son be triggered for example by a cold! That day was the last day I ever felt safe in the city we lived in, the city that I grew up in. How was I ever going to be able to avoid polluted roads whilst living in London?!

The summer of 2018 continued to be a punishing one, tipping 34 degrees daily, the heat was apocalyptic. Just going to the high street for groceries or waiting at a bus stop became anxiety-inducing as I eyed the queues of traffic pumping out the fumes I now knew were so harmful. By October my son had been admitted to hospital seven times. I had a hospital bag packed permanently and had learnt to recognise the sequence of symptoms that alerted me to call an ambulance: coughing, pale skin tone, faster rate of breathing, wheezing, pulling in under the rib cage. I began to suffer from panic attacks as I was so worried that I might misjudge the state of his breathing.

The words of the consultant swum around my head and I began to tentatively read about air pollution. I was startled to learn about the sheer scale of the problem. The UK has a higher rate of childhood asthma than any other country in Europe. Many areas of the UK, especially the cities, are unhealthily polluted. New research by Global Action Plan and Earth Sense has found that 27% of UK schools are located in areas which are above World Health Organisation air pollution limits. The air, polluted by gases from the exhausts of diesel vehicles (NOx) and tiny bits of matter from tyre, brake and road wear as well as wood burning (particulate matter) is affecting us all, but making the most vulnerable sick.

My son is a bit stronger now, but I am worried for all the other kids across the country. I have now joined Mums for Lungs, a network of people (not just mums!) campaigning for clean air, so all children can breathe safely. We try to raise awareness of air pollution and ask people to take individual action, but we really focus on campaigning for change at government-level because ultimately they have the power and responsibility to reduce pollution quickly! In fact, many parts of the UK are even illegally polluted and yet the Government is taking very little action to protect everyone’s health.

On this Clean Air Day please join me in protecting our kids:

• Reduce the use of your car
• Reduce the number of deliveries you get, or collect them yourself (click and collect)
• Don’t use a wood burning stove or fire pit
• You could even campaign for a School Street so the council closes the road by the school at drop-off and pick up times
• Or perhaps even campaign for bigger change – join Mums for Lungs to campaign for cleaner air.

Can I also ask you to follow Mums for Lungs on social media?
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram

There is also lots of information and resources on the website from info on School Streets, to idling flyers and a new page on how to help your school to take action too.

Please get in touch with [email protected] if you want to learn more or have questions about how to improve air pollution in your local area!"

Ruth Fitzharris is a member of Mums for Lungs, a mother, and an air quality campaigner who lives in London.

I agree. I also think there is a great deal of air pollution in homes eg people still using bleach etc .

www.blf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Indoor%20air%20pollution%20downloadable%20PDF.pdf

my dc school planted a 'barrier hedge' along the fence to the road to reduce pollution from traffic.
I don't know how effective it is but the playground felt a lot cleaner with hedge.

also: bikeability courses for parents and children.

The problem with campaigning for cleaner air is that it takes too long and is too risky to the childrens lives you have now.

I have asthma as do 2 of my DC. The #1 action i chose to take was to move to the countryside. #2 was to campaign for cleaner air....from the countryside.

You’re just not being realistic if you continue to stay in London. It won’t get better in time for your son, but maybe will for his children. If he’s truly at risk, think about moving to where the air is cleaner. It can cost a lot in career progression and so on, but for me that was secondary to protecting my DC.

The countryside can have much worse air quality than you expect. If you live in a village where a lot of homes are using wood stoves, open fires etc (which is more common in rural areas) then your local PM2 particulate rate in the air can be extremely high on cold winter days. Plus diesel burning agricultural equipment etc.

If you are surrounded by your own land and don't burn wood yourself at home, great. But don't assume villages will automatically be better for your child's health if they have asthma

Ruth, I am interested in the "get fewer deliveries part" - presumably this only reduces pollution if you are going to do click and collect yourself on foot or on a bike?

I don't see how having 30 more people drive to the supermarket to collect would result in a net fall in pollution relative to a van delivering groceries to 30 households? Plus it increases congestion.

Or am I missing something?

@MojoMoon

Ruth, I am interested in the "get fewer deliveries part" - presumably this only reduces pollution if you are going to do click and collect yourself on foot or on a bike?

I don't see how having 30 more people drive to the supermarket to collect would result in a net fall in pollution relative to a van delivering groceries to 30 households? Plus it increases congestion.

Or am I missing something?

you are missing lots of deliveries verus one large delivery. amazon delivering one book, something else delivered from second hand auction site, another delivery from a farm shop, supermarket deliveries. they all add up.

Cristina lung foundations states that research indicates over diagnosis of asthma is prevalent in this country

British lung foundation that should say

Some of the school streets resources seems tailored to London.
Are there any school streets outside of London? I can’t see it gaining any traction where I live, unfortunately.

Can we measure air pollution ourselves so that we can use this information to campaign? Or is there a resource available to check pollution levels in our areas?

if you want to measure air quality around schools you can get into contact with www.cleanairuk.org/
they were very helpful organising measurements where we used to live.

@MojoMoon

The countryside can have much worse air quality than you expect. If you live in a village where a lot of homes are using wood stoves, open fires etc (which is more common in rural areas) then your local PM2 particulate rate in the air can be extremely high on cold winter days. Plus diesel burning agricultural equipment etc.

If you are surrounded by your own land and don't burn wood yourself at home, great. But don't assume villages will automatically be better for your child's health if they have asthma

Lol. Yes air quality isn’t perfect in the countryside, but it will 100% of the time be better than air quality in capital cities like London or Paris.

Plus diesel burning agricultural equipment etc.

This is particularly hilarious as every lorry and most trades vans are diesel, as are city buses. And any street in a city will have hundreds more of diesel vehicles going by mere metres from your home all day long. This is much much worse than farmer Marcel driving his tractor 2 miles away from me in his for half a day.....

Is it true that air pollution is actually worse inside the cars?

Agreed. But think individual action is no where near enough, we need to legislate for clean air and make some hard decisions as a society around car use.

My kids school us on a busy road with no green space at all, and our walk to school (we walk every day) you literally can’t hear the kids chatter it’s so noisy with traffic. I’m nowhere near London.

I don’t understand why freight is trailed around in massive dirty lorries, could rail be used fir the longer bits then cleaner fleets for the local the connections? (Well done DHL who are already doing the local electric fleet bit!) Also all our buses plume out fumes, seem to bubble around in 1st or 2nd gear very noisily, and are generally empty, there must be a cleaner way?

Clean air is a long term, generations long project. If you look at the air quality from 1900 to 2000 it has in fact greatly improved. Pre1950 London still had those “pea soup” toxic fogs that would literally kill thousands a day. Then there was lead fumes from leaded petrol until the mid1980s. Look up the history, the air is progressively getting cleaner.

So the issue is that we need to keep on pushing for better and better air quality. Investment into green technology and infrastructure is key to this. As governments have proven they are willing to implement new stricter laws as soon as they can. For example, I heard a shocking thing from my DB who lives in U.K. He and his wife went to a new development to look at houses and the developers are not putting in any electric car charge points whatsoever! The U.K. government had what a 2030 goal to ban petrol cars? How are they going to do that if not even brand new houses will have electric car charging points? There should be a law NOW requiring all newly built homes to have these as a standard feature.

Better public transport, more bike lanes and less private car use, surely one day the domination of cars has to come to an end

@adagio

My kids school us on a busy road with no green space at all, and our walk to school (we walk every day) you literally can’t hear the kids chatter it’s so noisy with traffic. I’m nowhere near London.

I don’t understand why freight is trailed around in massive dirty lorries, could rail be used fir the longer bits then cleaner fleets for the local the connections? (Well done DHL who are already doing the local electric fleet bit!) Also all our buses plume out fumes, seem to bubble around in 1st or 2nd gear very noisily, and are generally empty, there must be a cleaner way?

Where do you children play and do sport at school?

@Macncheeseballs

Better public transport, more bike lanes and less private car use, surely one day the domination of cars has to come to an end

Private cars aren’t the ones doing most of the air quality type pollution. It’s diesel vehicles like, public transport buses, trains. Plus the lorries carrying goods.

Don’t forget that the container ships as well are doing the particulate pollution for import/exports and also do more than all the cars on the road.

CO2 isn’t what we need to focus on for air quality, it’s the particulate pollution that kills.

I believe inactivity in children also contributes to asthma. I know air pollution obviuosly plays it part but getting children exercising more often has been proven to reduce rates of asthma - erj.ersjournals.com/content/37/2/318#:~:text=13%20conducted%20a%2016%2Dweek,and%20reduction%20in%20medication%20use.

This is a big issue for me at the moment, especially with everything going restricting kids clubs, sports etc.

Reducing car use will require better and cheaper public transport. My school run would cost about £50 a week by bus. When you factor in shopping, going to work, visiting my parents etc as well it's cheaper to drive a small car.

Private cars aren’t the ones doing most of the air quality type pollution. It’s diesel vehicles like, public transport buses, trains. Plus the lorries carrying goods.

says who? the car industry?

of course cars contribute to pollution. through exhaust and fine particles from their tyres rubbing off on the streets.
plus the sheer number of cars. it all adds up.

@Sometimesfraught82
There is a tarmac yard which is roughly the size of 2 tennis courts, then a smaller tarmac area about the size of half a court for infants. Classes have to rotate break times since Covid. (It’s 2 form entry primary so about 550 kids I think). There is also a hall (which they can’t use so much now due to Covid - they have to mainly stay in classrooms). Lots of go noodle.