Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Sharp intake of breath - some pretty big peaks this week - Pollution N4 wc 16 Mar
You might have read the news that it seems these readings finally cannot be ignored by Haringey Council (and thank you to everyone for adding your voice to this) and after a decade of complaints they have finally had a 'meeting'.
But these readings indicate a meeting is not enough and we need action NOW! We can't wait for another meeting, consultations, general inertia. It has taken the14 years to hold a meeting - we can't wait another decade for 'the next step'.
Come on Haringey Council - protect the health of the people who live here NOW!
6 out of 7 days above the WHO recommended safe levels... who can be safe in this neighbourhood!
Tags for Forum Posts: air pollution, ladder air pollution
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh
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Alice, for those of less versed in matters of pollution, to help us get a sense of the scale of the local issue, I thought Justin's mention in a comment on Rae's thread of the WHO guidelines for pm2.5 useful.
He said that WHO identify health impacts above 5μg (microgrammes)/m3 across an annual period, and 15 across any 24 hour period more than 3-4 days per year. Do we have the date to annualise our levels?
The UK's Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 for England set less ambitious targets to be met by January 2028 of an annual average of 12 µg/m3 for PM2.5 not to be exceeded at any monitoring station.
Using either standard, if the local measurements are accurate, we seem to fall very far short of a safe standard.
The Government's web page on Particulate matter pollution has the following graph showing the annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 in the UK, 2009 to 2024 - by which standard we appear to be so poorly served that it beggars belief that it's allowed to continue.
I was recently in Hanoi, which is now ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world, where severe PM2.5 pollution contributes to approximately 5800 premature deaths annually. (And my other half felt it). I just checked what the level of PM2.5 pollution is there. It's currently showing (09:00) at 51 µg/m3. Can it really be possible that for several hours each day, our PM2.5 levels are four times higher than Hanoi's and for much of somes days we're not far below them?
Looking further afield, during the evening hours, according to AQI data, we're apparently ranking with the most badly polluted cities in the world - up there in the worst 5 or 10 cites at "severe' levels. Can you tell me if I have this right, or am I misinterpreting the data?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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Come on Haringey Council - protect the health of the people who live here NOW!
Hear hear!
Meetings can be nice and especially if they are good meetings.
Given the clear public health issues at stake, one might expect the council's Director of Public Health to speak up. If the Director is keeping quiet, then he may have been cautioned by the Leadership behind the scenes to keep his head down. Hope I'm wrong.
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