Air pollution – time for a change!

350 hundred years ago, Oxford historian and writer Anthony Wood put his finger on it: "Certainly Oxford is no good aire". It’s no longer coal fires causing the problems but the air is still bad. Public Health England says that 5.3% of deaths in our county are attributable to particulate air pollution (very fine dust that lodges in the lungs) and many people suffer long-term ill-health that is made worse by pollution. In fact the health impact of air quality is above obesity and alcohol in Oxfordshire.

In May 2016 this has been reconfirmed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) have put Oxford in the list of 10 UK towns and cities, including London, Glasgow and Port Talbot, that are failing to meet international air quality standards. Nationally 40,000 early deaths are caused by poor air, according to the Royal College of Physicians.

The greatest part of Oxford’s pollution comes from transport – cars, buses, taxis, trucks and in the front line are not only cyclists and pedestrians but the research suggests that car drivers (cooped up in their metal boxes) actually suffer worse air than cyclists.

The whole of the city of Oxford has been designated as an Air Quality Management Area and similar zones exist in various parts of the county where councils should be working to cut pollution. The City Council is active with a well-developed air quality plan and their new plan to work on pollution with schools is very welcome. However, the County Council is responsible for transportation and existing policies, which favour vehicles over cycling are simply not good enough to clean up our air in the near future. It’s also regrettable that the county-level Health and Wellbeing Board plan makes no mention of air quality, while the growth-driven Oxfordshire Local Economic Partnership is planning for ever-more traffic.

It is time for action. Following the ‘Solutions to Air Pollution in Oxford’ event run by Friends of the Earth at Oxford University in April, The Oxfordshire Air Quality Action Group has been set up to galvanise action towards potential solutions and strategies.

Air Pollution is a growing concern, including in London, where “London parents see toxic air as the biggest health threat to their children” (Source: YouGov). Experts now blame air pollution for a death toll of more than 9,000 a year in the capital. Even here in Oxfordshire, Didcot power station is said to have “probably killed some 100 times more people than Chernobyl”. *

We need policy-makers to take this seriously both locally and nationally, especially to protect the health of children. We can all contribute by walking and cycling more. There is also equipment available for community groups to measure local air quality themselves.

Air Quality Action Group welcomes your involvement –Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/Oxfordshireairquality/

Chris Church and Jake Backus are members of Cyclox and Oxford Friends of the Earth

* Didcot reference quoted by Sir Christopher Llewellyn Smith