There is going to be a meeting with the council! Time to talk about air pollution

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Permalink Reply by Jamie Harper on Wednesday

A step forward.

We are reminded on days like today of the cyclicality of life. Mid-March and the birds are out building and feathering their nests. Then there is the longer cycle of political life. Ephemeral, like some rare Asian orchid, councillors appear, blooming briefly after years of dormancy. 

A 'meeting' is welcome but is more than a decade overdue. And given the imminent election, we should be  justifiably wary of timing. Most will remember the flurry of promises about traffic solutions prior to the 2022 elections. 

This thread from 2018 is very instructive, both in terms of the content and the timeframes. It also has some useful images that could help illustrate the problem in the meeting.
 
https://harringayonline.com/forum/topics/smoke-nuisance-mattison-pe...

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Permalink Reply by Brian 13 hours ago

A meeting with concerned councillors? (Anyone would think there's an election in the offing.) As has been said above this problem has been in the making for ten years. Rather late in the day to take up this issue. 

(Election 7 May 2026) 

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Permalink Reply by Rae Spungles 12 hours ago

@S WIlliams below posted a study from Saudi Arabia which led me to this relevant study from an urban area in Greece.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/5/792
Here's the summary:

Summary: Commercial cooking emissions and urban air quality

Source: Atmosphere (2022) – Peer-reviewed study by K.-M. Fameli et al., focusing on the Greater Athens Area.

Overview This study evaluated the quantitative impact of commercial cooking activities on air quality in a highly populated urban environment.

Methodology Researchers surveyed local restaurants to record operating hours, equipment, meat types, and fuel usage. They then calculated the resulting emissions and used advanced air quality modelling to map exactly how these pollutants disperse across city streets.

Key findings

• The coal and wood factor: When analysing cooking fuels, the burning of coal and wood for grilling is responsible for a staggering 98.1% of the total emitted particulates (PM10 and PM2.5).

• Meat emissions are massive: It is not just the fuel; the cooking process itself releases immense amounts of Cooking Organic Aerosol (COA). The study found that emissions generated directly from grilling meat (724.9 tonnes) were nearly as high as the emissions from burning the cooking fuel itself (940.1 tonnes).

• Localised pollution hotspots: While commercial cooking accounts for about 1% of the total particulate emissions across the entire city, its impact is intensely concentrated. In urban centres with dense restaurant clusters, cooking contributes up to 6% of the total PM10 concentrations in the local air.

• Evening spikes: Emissions are heavily tied to operating hours, with the maximum air quality impact occurring in the evening (19:00 to 22:00) during peak dinner service.

Implications for communities The research concludes that commercial cooking fumes significantly deteriorate the surrounding air quality, particularly in neighbourhoods where restaurants are densely located. The authors stress that this is a major, frequently overlooked source of urban pollution that authorities must urgently address in local air quality monitoring and environmental planning.

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