London mayor Sadiq Khan issued the highest
air pollution alert in London for the first time, de-
claring that the "filthy air" had become a "health
crisis"
other parts of the UK) is an on-
going issue, we decided to take
a look at one of the most cost
effective ways to fight pollution
that the government could im-
plement.
ries, and busses and have been
found to affect both lung ca-
pacity and growth.
As well as public health con-
cerns there are also significant
economic costs to pollution,
the Kings Report, compiled by
the London government, esti-
mated that,
In January of this year, London
mayor Sadiq Khan issued the
highest air pollution alert in
London for the first time, de-
claring that the "filthy air" had
become a "health crisis", with
readings in from the Air Quality
Index showing that air quality
in London was worse than Bei-
jing at some points of the day.
But this is not the first time that
the public have been warned of
the dangers of air pollution in
cities. A 2015 study from King's
College London found that al-
most 9,500 people die early
each year in London because
of long-term exposure to air
pollution, more than twice as
many as previously thought.
However, the cause is not Co2,
it is a combination of fine par-
ticulates called PM2.5s and
PM10s, along with nitrogen ox-
ide (NO2). These are created
by mostly by diesel cars, lor-
“ economic costs... ranged from
£1.4 billion (long-term expo-
sure to PM2.5 and mortality;
short-term exposure to PM2.5
and hospital admissions; short-
term exposure to NO2 and both
deaths brought forward and
hospital admissions) to £3.7
billion (replacing short-term ex-
posure to NO2 and deaths
brought forward with long-term
exposure to NO2 and mortali-
ty). Inclusion of other less well
established health outcomes
would increase the economic
costs although this has not
been estimated in this report."
The last Mayoral administration
under Boris Johnson
spent £1.43m applying a spe-
cial glue to roads around Lon-
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