Air Pollution In The United Kingdom

Air pollution in the United Kingdom has long been considered a significant health issue, and it causes numerous other environmental problems such as damage to buildings, forests, and crops. Many areas, including major cities like London, are found to be significantly and regularly above legal and recommended pollution levels. Air pollution in the UK is a major cause of diseases such as asthma, lung disease, stroke, cancer, and heart disease, and is estimated to cause forty thousand premature deaths each year, which is about 8.3% of deaths, while costing around £40 billion each year.

Air pollution is monitored and regulated. Air quality targets for particulates, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), are mostly aimed at local government representatives responsible for the management of air quality in cities, where air quality management is the most urgent. In 2017, research by the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and the Royal College of Physicians revealed that air pollution levels in 44 cities in the UK are above the recommended World Health Organization guidelines.

The UK government has plans to improve pollution due to traffic, and is banning the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2030, and is phasing out the use of coal in its electrical power generation.

History

Prehistory to the 20th Century

Air pollution is often assumed to have begun with the Industrial Revolution, but it's a much older problem.

Mining has existed in Great Britain since prehistoric times and lead mines (such as Charterhouse in Somerset and Odin Mine) may have been worked before Roman Britain. The Pipe Rolls refer to lead and silver smelting in the Middle Ages. Research on a Swiss ice-core indicates that atmospheric pollution containing lead between the years 1170 and 1216 was as high as that during the Industrial Revolution, correlating accurately with smelting in the Peak District, the primary European source of lead and silver at the time, with spikes in pollution associated closely with the increasing power of successive monarchs during their reigns.

In 1306, Edward I introduced the first prohibitive environmental law, against the usage of 'sea coal' from Northumbria. Sulphur-rich coal from this exposed seam was increasingly being used because of dwindling supplies of wood in and around cities, but it produced stifling smoke and fumes. The legislation made little difference to the population even up to Elizabeth I's time.

By the 1600s, smoke pollution was also having an effect on building exteriors. In a landmark legal case from 1610, judgement was awarded to William Aldred against his neighbour, with references to the smell of pig sties and fumes from lime kilns, "stopping of the wholesome air" and "infecting and corrupting the air."

Through the 1800s, coal-burning for the Industrial Revolution in particular made the UK the world's leading source of carbon-based air pollution by a great margin (surpassed by the United States in 1888 and Germany in 1913). Local campaigning societies sprang up to complain about the health risks, such as the ''Committee for the Consumption of Smoke'' in Leeds. The Alkali Act of 1863 was passed - and intermittently amended - to regulate irritant gaseous hydrochloric acid produced in the Leblanc process to make sodium carbonate, but also the sulphuric acid often caused by emissions from the same factories. The Public Health Act was passed in 1875, which legislated not just for the health effects of air pollution but also the visual effects.

Experiments by the London County Council and the Meteorological Council from 1902–1903 found that 20% of London fogs were due to smoke alone, all were made denser and longer-lasting by smoke and that the death rate "enormously expands" during the fogs. By the 20th century - at least - respiratory diseases were the UK's biggest killers he death-rate from bronchitis in the UK remained the highest in the world in the early 1950s, 65 per 100,000 in England and Wales, more than twice than of the nearest other country, Belgium

The Great Smog of 1952

Early in December 1952, a cold fog descended upon London. Because of the cold, Londoners began to burn more coal than usual. The resulting air pollution was trapped by the inversion layer formed by the dense mass of cold air. Concentrations of pollutants, coal smoke in particular, built up dramatically. The problem was made worse by use of low-quality, high-sulphur coal for home heating in London in order to permit export of higher-quality coal, because of the country's tenuous postwar economic situation. The "fog", or smog, was so thick that driving became difficult or impossible. The extreme reduction in visibility was accompanied by an increase in criminal activity as well as transportation delays and a virtual shut down of the city. During the 4 day period of smog, some 3,000-4,000 people were estimated to have died, though more recent estimates suggest the actual figure may have been as high as 12,000.

Recent history

Four years after the Great London Smog, parliament passed the Clean Air Act, which made a substantial difference to urban air quality. Even so, air pollution remains a serious environmental issue in the UK over half a century later.

In April 2014, for example, there were warnings of 'very high' air pollution for many areas of England. High levels of pollution in London and other parts of the south east of England were bad enough to cause sore eyes and sore throats and experts warned those with heart conditions and asthma to stay inside.

Attempts to tackle air pollution through legislation have also continued. On 29 April 2015, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the government must take immediate action to cut air pollution, following a case brought by environmental lawyers at ClientEarth.

Published pollution information

The UK has established an air quality network where levels of the key air pollutants are published by monitoring centres. Air quality in Oxford, Bath and London is particularly poor. One study performed by the Calor Gas company and published in The Guardian newspaper compared walking in Oxford on an average day to smoking over sixty light cigarettes.

The UK Air Quality Archive contains more precise information which permits a cities management of pollutants to be compared against the national air quality objectives set by DEFRA in 2000

Localized peak values are often cited, but average values are also important to human health. The UK National Air Quality Information Archive offers almost real-time monitoring of "current maximum" air pollution measurements for many UK towns and cities. This source offers a wide range of constantly updated data, including:

* Hourly Mean Ozone (µg/m³)
* Hourly Mean Nitrogen dioxide (µg/m³)
* Maximum 15-Minute Mean Sulphur dioxide (µg/m³)
* 8-Hour Mean Carbon monoxide (mg/m³)
* 24-Hour Mean PM₁₀ (µg/m³ Grav Equiv)

DEFRA acknowledges that air pollution has a significant effect on health and has produced a simple banding index system that is used to create a daily warning system that is issued by the BBC
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