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Pollution kills 4,200 people every year in London
Pippa Crerar and Mark Blunden30 Jun 2010
More than 4,200 Londoners are dying early every year because of long-term exposure to traffic pollution, research shows today.
Central London is most polluted because of the number of vehicles, but twice as many people die per year in the suburbs due to higher population densities.
The findings were seized on by the Green Party which slammed the “inadequacy” of the Mayor's anti-pollution measures. Simon Birkett, founder of the Campaign for Clean Air in London, said: “This report paints a shocking picture of the Olympic city.”
The long-awaited study commissioned by Boris Johnson found that the most polluted areas were Bryanston and Dorset Square, followed by Marylebone High Street and the City of London.
Next were Bloomsbury, the West End, St James's, Hyde Park, King's Cross, Holborn and Covent Garden and Brompton. Premature deaths for these central areas are put at five or six a year.
The study by the Institute of Occupational Medicine found that in an outer London area such as Penge, 12 people are likely to die prematurely because of pollution each year. Other suburbs badly affected were Cator in south London, Cray Valley West in Bromley and Clock House in Beckenham.
Mr Johnson is under pressure to bring in a low emissions zone in central London. The Green Party's Darren Johnson said of the report: “It highlights how inadequate the Mayor's plans are to reduce pollution and the need for urgent targeted measures.
“There is a real divide between different areas of London, with some areas suffering twice the mortality rate of air pollution related deaths as other areas.”
A spokeswoman for the Mayor said he was taking the problem “extremely seriously”.
She said: “He is investing around £250 million a year on sustainable long-term measures to tackle air quality such as a cycling revolution.”
The spokeswoman said he was also “converting the bus fleet to hybrid, increasing the use of zero-polluting electric vehicles and introducing the New Bus for London, which will be 40 per cent less polluting than a traditional diesel model”.
The study comes days after the City of London breached air quality objectives by recording excessive pollution levels on more than 36 days since the start of this year.
A summer of roadworks highlighted by the Standard will make pollution worse as pedestrians, cyclists and drivers find themselves in “pollution pools” unable to escape the fumes. The young, elderly and people with asthma and heart disease are particularly at risk.
Professor Sir Malcolm Green, founder of the British Lung Foundation, said: “More roadworks are not good for long-term health. It is a cumulative effects that is concerning.”
Reader views (4)
A problem that is too little acknowledged is the effects of air pollution on pregnancy.Placental inflammation in the womb affects foetal development.Low birth weight,preterm delivery and therefore infant mortality all rise in frequency. Most politicians prefer to talk about the end stage, dying early, rather than the damage that affects babies or youngsters for their whole life ahead.Most women give little thought to the air they breathe in pregnancy. http:noincineratorforcroydon.blogspot.com for a longer article on inflammation and polluted air...I didn't include the histopathology slides of mice placentas exposed to pollution,though they exist.
Women were provided with a little knapsack which they wore for three months.It recorded their personal exposure,across varying trimesters.Exposure trumped all other variables for low birth weight...smoking was controlled for...inluding social class.A "beautiful" little design.
- smogbad, sutton uk, 12/02/2011 13:34
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And they say smoking is bad for you? Interesting that these figures are only for London and not the whole of Great Britain. So take Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool - multiply these four by 4200 and you have 16800 dying early from traffic pollution. And that is only 4 cities!!
- peter, Vienna, Austria, 01/07/2010 10:17
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Any sensible society would ban all private traffic in the centre of cities. We're not a sensible society so why keep on about the stupidity of London. Where's my car keys.
- Fgann, London, 01/07/2010 07:28
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Thats good for London 2010,you should have been here in the 1950's.
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 30/06/2010 13:26
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