Air pollution revealed as major election concern among parents Talking to parents outside a primary school suggests widespread concern about air pollution and it’s potential impact on children’s health. […]

Talking to parents outside a primary school suggests widespread concern about air pollution and it’s potential impact on children’s health.

Four days after the government published a much-criticised plan to tackle the crisis, parents expressed their fear about the damage air pollution could be doing to their children.

School run

“Air pollution is definitely a concern – especially during the school run. You can really feel it in the air and sometimes I just want to cover my baby,” said diplomat Zydra Senkuviene as she dropped her daughter off at the Henry Fawcett primary school in Kennington.

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“There’s been a lot of talk about air pollution but I’m not sure if the necessary action will be taken,” she added.

Situated just off two big arterial roads, the school lies close to a pollution hotspot emitting 56.76 micrograms (millionths of a gram) of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre.

This might not sound like a lot but this level comfortably exceeds the legal limit of 40 micrograms – as does much of London and the country at large.

Up news agenda

But while air pollution has climbed up the news – and political – agenda in the past few years this seems to have translated more into anxiety among the population than political action.

Ibrahim Syed has just dropped his three boys – of 6,8 and 10 – off at the school.

“Air pollution should be a big part of the election. It’s good that Theresa May is taking some action but I would like to see more done. And there needs to be more talk about the environment in general,” he says.

Standing outside the gates, Sabrina Seid, mother of seven-year Medina, added:

“Air pollution is a very big deal. They do speak about it at the school but generally not enough is said about it. My daughter has breathing problems and it does make you wonder,” she said.

“Air pollution is a very big deal. They do speak about it at the school but generally not enough is said about it. My daughter has breathing problems and it does make you wonder” Sabrina Seid

Air pollution and the environment more generally are always likely to lag behind big political issues such as Brexit and healthcare in any election.

But if the parents of Henry Fawcett are anything to go by many people still see the environment as an important issue that – with the exception of air pollution – is being almost entirely overlooked in this election.

There has been next to no debate about issues such as fracking, bee-killing nerve-agent pesticides and, most notably, climate change and the Great Repeal Bill – which will attempt to bring more than 1,100 pieces of green EU legislation into UK law, critics say.

“We’ve had no mention of climate change in this election when it’s the biggest threat facing the country and the world in the 21st century,” said Green Party joint leader Jonathan Bartley.

Furthermore, the government seems to be taking a very relaxed attitude to the Great Repeal Bill which, by it’s own admission, will be unable to translate around a third of the environmental laws into UK legislation.

The white paper for the Great Repeal Bill gave just 11 lines on the environment, raising fears among critics that the government either does not care about green issues or underestimates the scale of the task ahead of it in safeguarding the environment.

James Thornton, chief executive of the environmental law firm ClientEarth, said: “The government has shown signs of dither and delay on everything from climate change to clean air to the natural environment.”

“Party leaders must set out their manifesto promises to safeguard the natural world, protect our health from poor air quality and to show leadership on climate change” James Thornton

“Party leaders must set out their manifesto promises to safeguard the natural world, protect our health from poor air quality and to show leadership on climate change,” he added.

But despite demands for more environmental engagement in the election it seems unlikely that our surroundings will get much of a look in, with the exception of air pollution.

The air pollution problem:

Most experts agree that the only way to really tackle the pollution crisis is to keep millions of the older diesel vehicles responsible for the bulk of nitrogen dioxide emissions away from pollution hotspots.

But this would involve charging diesel drivers to enter the most polluted areas – a politically unpopular move among the owners of these cars at the best of times. And all the more so since many of them were persuaded to buy diesel cars by politicians on the basis that they produced less carbon dioxide than petrol vehicles.

So the government’s long awaited air pollution plan last week passed the buck to local authorities, suggesting that they can introduce charging zones, as London is planning to do, but saying they should only only do so as a last resort.

Instead, it suggested measures ranging from a “targeted” scrappage scheme to take the most-polluting vehicles off the road and retrofitting bus and lorry fleets, to removing road humps to improve traffic flow and encouraging more electric cars.

Wholly inadequate

Measures which were dismissed as wholly inadequate.

Shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman has said the Labour party was committed to putting in place a network of clean air zones across the UK where there are high emissions, and would act at an international level to close loopholes in emissions testing of vehicles.

Meanwhile, a Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “Poor air quality is a significant health problem. After smoking, estimates suggest it is Britain’s second biggest public health challenge. We will invest in green transport such as electric vehicles and phase out diesel.”

Air pollution is linked to an estimated 40,000 early deaths a year and 37 out of 43 areas across the UK are exceeding legal European Union limits for the pollutant nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from diesel engines.