Toxic UK air ‘triggering chronic lung conditions and life threatening asthma attacks’ for millions | The Independent
Toxic UK air ‘triggering chronic lung conditions and life threatening asthma attacks’ for millions | The Independent
19 comments
Not got a comment on the story (not read it yet), just wanter to say that your username needs to be the title of either a horror movie or a spy thriller.
The picture is when a Saharan dust cloud making its way across Europe hit the UK.
This is why we should be doing everything we can to encourage active travel, make public transport affordable/practical (outside London it’s generally a shitshow), roll out more EV infrastructure etc etc.
Not only does this help us wheezers, but the nation as a whole gets a boost and that can take a huge amount of pressure off the NHS, way more than just through reduced cardiovascular issues; excercise is good for the mind *and the* body.
One thing they missed from the story was how to check what pollution in your are is and is predicted to be. DEFRA do a great [interactive maps](https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/locations). Here’s [Glasgow](https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/locations?q=G1) with some of the most polluted streets in Europe, now [Nottingham](https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/locations?q=N1) (which manages to be worse!), and finally [central London](https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/locations?q=WC1).
When was that picture taken of London? I don’t remember that happening but looks kind of cool.
Pollution in London never sits that high so must be something else.
The toxic politics of the UK means that a solution will be promised, then lied about, then forgotten.
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I m glad I’m not the only person who has noticed this. I have healthy lungs and do more than my fair share of exercise but it feels like the air is getting a bit harder to breath each year. Having to walk or cycle next to a busy road is the worst, its got so bad that I’m moving house just to avoid it.
All new public transport should either be electric/battery or electric/hydrogen for a start
Taxis, Busses, Trains
And yet people protest ULEZ…
Its not going to be a cure-all by any stretch of the imagination but one thing i am -sick- and tired of are utterly wrecked, usually diesel cars (and very often vans) that almost appear like they don’t even use a head gasket at all – black, revolting smoke gushing out their arses and straight into my lungs, whether Im on the bike or walking on the pavement.
My car is almost 30 years old and passing the MOT each year is a challenge, to put it mildly, with petrol emission regs as they are. But even then I go out of my way to make sure the car is fit and have passed these stringent checks every time.
How are these vehicles fit to be on the road? Are they all avoiding emission testing or do diesel emissions regs basically allow for this sort of nonsense?
The quickest, cheapest thing we could do to cut air pollution would be to crack down on solid fuel combustion. Bonfires, barbecues, wood burning stoves etc. Also fireworks. Obviously do all the other stuff too, but people burning stuff for fun and/or because they can’t be bothered going to the dump is the low hanging fruit.
Does anybody else remember how clean the air was during the first few days of lockdown? I swear, it physically *tasted* different.
In Newcastle under Lyme we have a “landfill” that has now become a land hill and has this foul sulphur stench, the locals have been protesting it for years now, the company, Red Industries are corrupt and we have heard from drivers that if they go there before 7am “they will let you dump anything”. They have found rat poison which is illegal and the hydrogen sulphide levels are getting high which is making some of the kids in the area sick.
STOP THE STINK!
Well it’s all down to too many people. Back in 1950 the world population was 2.5 billion, today it’s just under 8 billion.
It’s called voting Tory.
Nothing to do with 62% of people being overweight? Or eating processed foods every day all day? I dunno about you, but I don’t think the air really is that toxic, maybe if you live in the centre of London or something but I mean come on, I get a lot of fresh air in this gorgeous country. All this gets inevitably blamed on the public and we pay for it through tax.
COP26 was a nice spectacle but the government seem to have forgotten that it was meant to result in significant action to combat things such as this. With no action being taken, this is only going to continue and burden the NHS with more lifestyle diseases to treat.
This is why climate change motto should be “save yourselves” not “save the planet”.
The planet is made of rock. We are made of very fragile pink stuff.
This is clearly just freedom smoke coming from the burning of Brussels Eurocrat red tape.
Inhaling it only makes you stronger and more British!