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Cardiff Diesel Pollution is bad news for Cyclists
Posted on Sunday, June 24 @ 20:33:00 BST by max.wallis
Cardiff Cyclists are alarmed to see that Cardiff is among the worst location for diesel particulates, according to summary data for the first three months of this year, says a Press Statement from Cardiff Cycling Campaign of 23 June 2007.
Max Wallis on behalf of Cardiff Cycling Campaign said this is bad news during Bike Week, when cycling groups have successfully encouraged more people to take to the bike. “We want the council to take action over the city’s bad record. They can press bus and taxi companies to fit particle traps. If this is not enough, the Council must consider diverting traffic from the centre or creating a Low Emission Zone (like London).”
The Campaign has taken up the call for urgent action on the health threat from diesel engines issued by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). The CSP analysed levels of the toxic pollutant PM10 recorded at 61 Government monitoring sites between January and April 2007 and expressed serious concern about the results.
Welsh sites come out badly:
Cardiff is the third worst “urban centre” site with 30 micrograms of PM10 per cubic metre of air (mcg/m3), just behind London Bloomsbury (33) and Manchester Piccadilly (31). This despite Cardiff’s monitor being in the pedestrian area (off Queen Street) and the London and Manchester sites being in Squares busy with buses and other traffic.
All are well above the European target -annual average for 2010 - of 20 mcg/m3.
Port Talbot is much the worst of urban background and urban industrial sites – 35 micrograms of PM10 per cubic metre of air (mcg/m3) compared with 31 in Blackpool and 27 in the steel town of S*****horpe.
The World Health Organisation believes there is no safe limit for exposure to PM10, a pollutant emitted predominantly by diesel engines.
Respiratory physiotherapists are concerned that exposure to PM10 causes breathing difficulties, such as asthma, so to tie in with Green Transport Week (16-24 June) the CSP has called on local authorities to take urgent action to enforce a reduction in the levels of PM10 - pollution that could be reduced with technology that is already available.
In their Press Release of 18 June, the CSP spokesperson, Professor Grahame Pope comments:
'The CSP is calling on local authorities in cities around the UK to follow the example set by the Mayor of London and implement their own Low Emission Zone (see note 3).
'Levels of PM10 across the whole of the UK are of enormous concern to physiotherapists and all health professionals who work with patients with breathing problems. PM10 is being increasingly linked with asthma, which affects over 5 million people in the UK. The technology exists to reduce PM10 emissions from diesel engines - but is the political will there to enforce its use? For the sake of our health and our children's health we cannot afford to go on ignoring this problem.'
25 per cent of particulates come from road transport. The emission standards of a vehicle could be improved in a number of ways such as fitting a particulate trap or filter, or the operator could re-engine the vehicle or convert it to an approved alternative fuel such as compressed natural gas.
The figures on PM10 levels come from Defra's Air Quality Archive, which measures air quality at a variety of sites, defined as kerbside, roadside, remote, rural, suburban, urban background, urban industrial and urban centre across the UK (see note 2).
Tables of readings taken from the monitoring sites analysed by the CSP are given on their website at http://www.csp.org.uk/director/newsandevents/news.cfm?item_id=2FE897F7C297F1F8C544FDCA84B82B9C
Cardiff Council are proposing to make St Mary’s Street better for pedestrians and cyclists by allowing buses and taxis only. But without other measures, the toxic diesel particulates could become worse and make the route unhealthy for cyclists.
Contacts Max Wallis (air pollution specialist) 029 2087 6436 Ken Barker (secretary) 029 2022 0309
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