Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
How did last week's pollution impact you?
Did you cough more? Throat feel scratchy? Eyes sore? Yes!? Read on...
It seems the people of Harringay* Ladder were in the middle of a right pea souper last week with toxic air that exceeded safe levels** for 6 out of 7 days.
And what are our council doing? Can we hear from them? ...deafening silence.....
* Note - pollution monitor in N4
** As outlined by WHO standards
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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THIS should be a matter for the Haringey Council Director of Public Health, Dr Maimaris.
The council's 51-page action plan for air quality appears to have expired in 2024. LINK.
Another municipal action plan appears to replace it, partially. The council's "Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2024–2029" purports to "reduce air pollution".
It's another beautifully produced publication by the council's public relations operation. The pdf file can be downloaded, noted and admired.
However, any previous focus on air pollution seems to have been diluted with many other ideas, including housing, care centres and mental health. All worthy subjects, but a long way from actual meaningful action on the reported repeated breaches of WHO Guidelines for particulates.
And still less, light-years away from committing to testable measurements for results by certain dates. Dates, not brackets of years as in the aging, if not redundant, climate action plan.
Anyone familiar with the council's production—over two decades—of similar glossy publications in this area, will understand precisely how much weight can be placed on them.
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Permalink Reply by Rae Spungles
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I’ve been tracking this as well, and your post is spot on. I’ve actually been digging into the raw data from the Breathe London sensors (specifically the Green Lanes node on Pemberton Road) to see if the numbers match yours and how they stack up over the month. (Anyone can download the raw data, and I urge interested people to have a go themselves.)
Here's the Breathe London data for the Pemberton Road/Green Lanes junction from last week:
On Wednesday, 4th March, the Green Lanes sensor recorded PM2.5 levels of 64 μg/m3. To put that in a global context, that is double the annual average of Beijing.
The average daily data for February also confirms what you’re seeing.
I compared Green Lanes to "control" sites, such as a local primary school and the Tottenham Hale junction. The results are quite shocking:
Dinner surge: Every single evening starting around 17:00, PM2.5 levels on Green Lanes double. By 19:00, our high street is often filthier than the Tottenham Hale traffic junction, even though that junction has ten times as many cars.
Grills fingerprint: During these evening spikes, Nitrogen Dioxide (which comes from car exhausts) stays relatively flat, but PM2.5 (smoke) rockets up. This statistically proves the source is the restaurant flues, not the traffic.
Topography trap: Since our roads slope upwards, even "legal" chimneys on Green Lanes are venting directly into our bedroom windows further up the "Ladder."
I’ve sent my analysis to Councillor Zena Brabazon to point out that being "compliant" with building regs isn't the same as being medically safe. If others are feeling impacts —asthma, stinging eyes, or just that heavy air—please report them. The data proves we aren't imagining it!
I know it's easy to "leave it for another day" because the impact can be subtle and long-term, but the more people report symptoms, the more ammunition for change.
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IT SEEMS difficult to reconcile:
(a) council claims of compliance; with
(b) repeated exceeding of WHO daily & annual particulate guidelines; England annual policy target and UK annual legal limit
Is this not a matter that Haringey Council's Director of Public Health (Will Maimaris) should speak up about?
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris
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The data seems fairly conclusive that our beloved restaurants are the main source and I suppose this shouldn't really be surprising. I wonder whether any restaurant has been equipped in some way to reduce or eliminate these emissions.
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I love your work here, Alice, but unfortunately we have heard from the council. They were really explicit in a meeting attended by hundreds of residents. It's too difficult a problem to solve and Ladder residents should expect no solution to the pollution that blights them even though every other road around Green Lanes has been closed to traffic. It's a post code lottery that we have lost, unfortunately, definitely to the detriment of our long term health. Unless we vote in someone new who has the courage/moral fortitude to tackle it.
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It's not the traffic, Rory. If you love the work, read it.
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