Our children (& us) breathe in pollution at frightening levels in some places in the UK on an often daily occurrence, many schools (especially inside cities) show above dangerous levels of pollution with more than 25% of all British schools and colleges surrounded by ‘dangerously high’ levels of air pollution and even in #1 urban place in the UK for air pollution in the same month as our new baby was born it wasn’t safe to take our baby outside!
I’m sure I don’t need to educate you that pollution is bad for our children (and us), but just in case you’re not aware:
- Pollution costs £6billion per year to our NHS
- Around 40,000 deaths are attributable to exposure to outdoor air pollution each year
- One in 10 child asthma cases ‘linked to traffic pollution’
- Air Pollution made a “material contribution” to the death of a nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah
- Air pollution affects your child’s lungs both before and after birth.
In a modern country like the UK this shouldn’t be a concern in 2021 but it is, I’ve recently been working with Milton Keynes Get Around MK to help with a school programme they’re running and I found that it can be a bit of a minefield for the untrained eye, here are my findings:
How to measure / track air pollution:
Physical devices
- Airly (£269 or free for schools) – Portable
- Plume Labs Flow 2 (~£200) – Portable
- Learnometer (£350 + VAT)
- Netatmo (~£130) – Semi Portable (requires wifi)
- Dyson HEPA Filter and Purifier (£550)
Apps/websites
- Historical Air Quality Exposure Checker (free)
- Breezometer (free app)
- Airly (free app)
- Air Pollution Calculator (to measure your own pollution)
How to improve the air quality
Inside:
- Plants – Probably the most obvious one of the lot
- Remember that pollutants can also come from things already in your home such as within volatile organic compounds, gases from heating & cooking, dust, damp, smoke, glues, paints, caulks, pesticides, cosmetics, and detergents etc)
- Naturally venting your house, school or workplace via windows and doors
- HEPA Filter or from brands like IQAIR
- Dyson Purifier (£550)
- Philips HEPA Filter (£150)
- Levoit Air Purifiers (£99)
- IQAIR
- Use AirLite Paint
- Buy air from the countryside (joke
Outside:
- Reduce the pollution at source (pedestrian only areas, anti idling areas, electric vehicle chargers, walk to school/work days etc)
- Reduce the spread of pollution by investing in living/green walls and outdoor plants
- Push for legal change so all emmissions are properly paid for by those that emit them
- Move to an electric car (Use code: OEV-TT93 here for a £50 Amazon voucher)
- Move to renewable energy tariff (e.g. Bulb or Octopus)
How to educate guides / toolkits / useful links / videos etc
Seeing pollution is really difficult
- Cleaner Air Sooner Toolkits
- The Clean Air for Schools Framework + letters to headteachers & MPs
- Mitigating Exposure to Traffic Pollution In and Around Schools (University of Surrey)
- Clean Air Hub: How does air pollution damage my children’s health?
- School Audit Toolkit (London Mayor)
- Air Pollution Calculator (to measure your own pollution)
- Idling Action London
- Clean School Air
- Islington – Clean Air Toolkit for School (thanks to cleanschoolair.com)
- Leicester School Toolkit (thanks to cleanschoolair.com)
- Oxford – Stop Project Toolkit (thanks to cleanschoolair.com)
- Surrey – Cleaner Air 4 Primary Schools (thanks to cleanschoolair.com)
- How do you breathe less pollution on school run? BBC
- Staffordshire Council Turning your car off
- Eco-Schools
- Get Around MK
- Developing Sustainability: Guidance for school governors
- Let schools breath
- Earth Cubs – Healthy Living Pack
- BHF ‘What is Air Pollution?’
- Electric Cars For Kids | Tesla Model X | Gecko’s Real Vehicles
- The Electric Car Visits Gecko – Gecko’s Garage | Car For Kids | Cartoons For Children
- Maddie Goes Electric (CBBC presenter helps adults pick their first EV)
Top image: British Lung Foundation