London’s air pollution – an introduction
The Great Smog of 1952, caused by smoke from coal fires in the UK capital, killed thousands of Londoners. This led to the UK adopting the Clean Air Act in 1956 which allowed the UK to overcome the crisis by restricting the use of coal in household fires. This ground-breaking legislation showed that the law can be used to protect the environment and people’s lives.
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The health impacts of
air pollution
4,300 people die in London every year because of air pollution. Air pollution is associated with a myriad of health problems including: Respiratory diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, heart disease, lung cancer, breast, cancer, asthma, diabetes, premature births and low birth weight an impaired lung development in children.
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Air pollution and climate change
Air quality and climate change are inextricably linked. Ozone, which is caused by traffic pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen reacting in sunlight, is both highly dangerous to human health and a powerful greenhouse gas. Black carbon, a component of PM10 emitted by diesel vehicles, is thought to be especially harmful to human health, and is also known to have a major impact on global warming and arctic melting.
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We sue the UK government for failing to protect people from air pollution
ClientEarth has brought a judicial review against the UK Government for failing to protect people’s health from toxic levels of air pollution.
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ClientEarth and air pollution – what we do
The UK and EU set legally binding limits on levels of harmful air pollution based on World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. One or more of these limits has been broken in London in every year since they came into effect in 2005. ClientEarth is working so that the law will protect peoples’ health from air pollution. We aim for the UK to achieve full compliance with air quality laws in London by the time of the Olympic Games in 2012.
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