MNHQ here: how concerned are you about air quality?

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We've been contacted by the Mayor of London's office; they're asking us to find out what Mumsnet users think about air quality - particular in relation to children's health, although it doesn't have to be exclusively so.

So we'd be grateful if you could let us have your views. Here are some prompts, although as ever feel free to ignore if you have other thoughts

*Is air quality something that you think about often, or that impacts on your daily life (or that of your family members)?
*Have you ever considered air quality when making decisions about where to live or work, or where to send your children to school?
*Do you take any measures to try to protect yourself or family members from poor air quality (such as filter masks)?
*Are you particularly concerned about any individual pollutants?
*Who do you think should be responsible for improving the quality of the air (if anyone)?
*If you could opt in to auto-alerts that gave you information about the air quality each day, would you do so? How would you use this information?
*Would you support policy measures to reduce air pollution such as scrapping diesel automobiles or charges on car use?

All feedback (not just from Londoners!) very welcome - thank you.
MNHQ

It's a high priority for me living in London.

I want to leave London because of it. The air is disgusting at times. When we had the terrible smog, I could feel it on my face.

I worry about the health of my children and do not understand why Boris wasted money on stupid zip wires instead of taking hard action to tackle it.

I think it is very important. I worked in central London for over 10 years and during that time developed asthma. Shortly after moving away my asthma has completely gone. I can only put this down to air quality and believe that diesel particulates are probably to blame. I can't help but wonder what damage is being done to lungs from daily exposure to pollutants, especially to children.

I live SW London and don't think about it at all.

my snot always goes a bit black when I'm in London.

I am really worried. It's got so much worse in the last few years. I travelled to China a few years back and that freaked me out- the pollution in Beijing was absolutely unbelievable and and since then I've noticed a few occasions when the same distinctive smell has been in the air in London. That prompted me to find out about air quality websites and feeds here, so that I could check that what I was smelling was indeed pollution.

I remember one occasion two winters ago when there was actual smog in central London and most people around me thought it was mist. It worries me that there's so little discussion and that we will sleepwalk into a situation like China.

There's so many other things now where the country is run for the benefit of big business and less and less for ordinary people so to be honest I'm pretty pessimistic about the likelihood of any action being taken. But I would absolutely support any campaign and think it's desperately important.

It's a major factor in wanting to move out of London and also in our choice of schools (one near us is next to a busy slow moving B road and under a major A road flyover! It's impacting the nursery decisions of a lot of my friends and our walking routes with the buggies. I routinely walk much further in order to stay on quiet roads (south west London). Sadly anywhere I'm likely to move to will probably be impacted by a second runway at Gatwick, or by fracking. It's like there no escape.

In London I absolutely hold the mayor responsible and loathe Boris for presiding over such a decline whole lying about it.

Visible air quality monitors are an EXCELLENT idea and would drive up awareness like nothing else. Websites and text alerts etc are only useful for people who are already concerned enough to sign up. We need to make everyone so concerned that the call for action becomes too loud to ignore.

Traffic is a major problem here (zone 4 London). It's got massively worse in 5 years and everything is routinely gridlocked in rush hour and most of the weekend. I've noticed since having DS how much people drive for insanely short distances. There's excellent public transport (I use it daily as I don't drive) and am amazed by how many other mums move about in the car all day even though they complain vociferously about congestion and how hard parking is. It seems to have become a class thing, especially with buses. More and people round here have the most enormous cars and seem really sneery about the idea of getting on a bus. You definitely notice a divide in the type of people who use different transport. When I was growing up (same area of London) it was much more normal for everyone to get public transport for local journeys. I think Uber is having an impact as well which is depressing.

We moved out of London 5 years ago. Air quality wasn't a driving force (no pun intended) but we certainly appreciated that we were moving somewhere less poluted, near the sea.

Some of the local tourist stuff even has the slogan "breathe it in" on it.

Only now it turns out that - to everybody's surprise - this area actually has terrible air pollution too.

We are considering another move fairly soon, and although again escaping air polution isn't the main reason I'm more aware of it than I was 5 years ago and it's more of a compelling reason to move for me this time I reckon.

Should have added I avoid going to the West End (esp with my DC) as the air is so terrible around Oxford Street most days. It's literally thick.
When pregnant I worked in the West End next to a major bus route and was constantly stressed about the crap from buses and cars I was forced to breathe in.
Please Sadiq, take action- you would have massive support from ordinary Londoners like us who are very worried about this.

I live in Hartlepool, and unless I hear the sirens go at the nuclear power station and/or a large BANG, I don't worry about the air quality here very often.

[Grin] And which clever dick thought it would be a good idea to surround a nuclear reactor by an array of highly explosive and toxic petro-chemical plants hmm?

I wonder if I could reach my bug out bag before the skin is peeling from my face?

That's what I worry about every Tuesday when the sirens go off.

Is there a really good website for accurate forecasts/existing levels for pollution levels ?

I live in small village in the midlands, but it's fairly close to a motorway and and airport. Using this website -

uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/locations?q=de74&day=1

it seems I have the same pollution level as my cousin in SW6.
We need national policy on this.

Conference - I just went on that link, I put in various locations, London, various costal resorts, and everything came up as 2.
I am very concerned, and I totally agree with having big monitors in public places.

On that link my grandmas remote village came up as 2, same as where I live in London

Even Oxford street gets 2s!

Please excuse my ignorance but how can we get an honest and accurate forecast ?

How bizarre, everywhere is a two today. How is that possible?

Are Volkswagen manning the monitors?

I feel as if I should think about it, but I don't much.
I've never experienced the "black snot" that people say they get after visiting London.
The air "feels fine".
So it goes down on my list of things to think about.

I notice it every day (often causes me to choke and cough) and it really worries me. I live in London, zone 1, and I think it's getting worse all the time. The air absolutely stinks in most of Central London.
I'd love to move out of London (though I was born here, and my family have lived in London for generations) and this is one of the main reasons (amongst many!)

My concern is that any govt will not prioritise this as there are no votes in it. AND looking fwd whatever positive effects of EU membership has will be destroyed. We will go back to being a vulgar, short term view lot.

I live between Manchester and the Peak District. I ride into Manchester most days and see the smog settling over Manchester on many mornings. I know what I do brings some environmental risks re pollution to me, but not as bad as sitting in a car.
Bike riding as a nation is such a no-brainer, but culturally we are a pretty stupid lot I'm afraid.
This year is the first time I'd considered wearing a filter mask to ride, as it's just about all in heavy traffic. Still with one person per car. Absurd.

I live in a small market town in a farming area, miles from any major cities, but my house is on one of the main routes into the town and the pollution levels far exceed recommended levels. Lots of monitoring has gone on over the years, all of which confirm high levels, but nothing has been done about it. It worries me a lot. My children's bedrooms are at the front of the house and I wouldn't dream of opening their windows, even when it's very hot. They all have asthma. I feel massively frustrated and concerned that pollution has been identified as a particular problem along my road but in the ten years or so since absolutely no measures have been taken to reduce it. (We got a letter once, about some kind of pollution-reducing coating that could be painted onto the houses and we agreed we would be willing to have that done, but I never heard anything else about it.)

Restrict use of cars, stop building so many roads that just encourages driving. Improve public transport. Incentivise bike riding as commuters.

We can't have a discussion/debate re pollution in towns and cities without taking transport policy as a start point.

I'm really worried about it. We live close to a major road in north London and I'm scared this is damaging my children's long term health. Several schools nearby have been reported with high levels of pollution. I really really really want to see the Mayor do something significant about this, and applaud his intention to extend the low emissions zone. I am horrified at recent reports that Boris tried to ignore / hide information about how bad air pollution is.

Oh and yes I would love some kind of alert about air pollution. I could make fire kids play in the park, not the garden and keep windows closed if the levels were particularly high

My daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter live in SW London and I am always aware of the dreadful air quality when I stay. There is asthma and other allergies in the family, and I do worry about the air quality making these worse. I really notice it when I am wheeling the pushchair and am concerned that so many people are exposed daily to filthy fumes. My hair and skin are noticeably dirtier when I'm in London. My daughter and family hope to move somewhere further out of the city (mainly due to high rent) but I will be relieved when they get out. Right now, with the country in chaos, I fear this very important issue will be put on the back burner.

You don't realise how bad it is till you leave London: I think it's much worse that anyone realises

legomum, or even visit London. I live in rural Scotland. My job entailed my flying to London for a couple of days most weeks. i noticed a huge difference in air quality. London does get true blue skies, but not often, often there is a haze, sometimes orange or grey. I felt grubby when I came back, my clothes felt grimy, my OH could smell the air.

Dh struggles to breathe in London (work)- diesal sets it off.

I have several friends with asthmatic children (often the youngest child - I think air quality has sharply deteriorated here). I was told this by an asthma nurse too.