London City: Children of poorest families are paying the price. No scbolar needed, on my visit to London I was astonished on what I saw in the area of new developed Canary Wharf and the surrounding burroughs … for a person living in The Netherlands just uninmaginable. A wealthy nation with the arrogance of an authoritarian state. Both PM David Cameron and Theresa May want to “save” the UK from jurisdiction of the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights …
Revealed: thousands of children at London schools breathe toxic air
Exclusive: 802 schools, nurseries and colleges are in areas where levels of nitrogen dioxide breach EU legal limits
Tens of thousands of children at more than 800 schools, nurseries and colleges in London are being exposed to illegal levels of air pollution that risk causing lifelong health problems, the Guardian can disclose.
A study identifies 802 educational institutions where pupils as young as three are being exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide that breach EU legal limits and which the government accepts are harmful to health.
The research, commissioned by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, suggests thousands more children and young people are at risk from toxic air than previously thought.
Khan said the results were devastating and warned that it was the capital’s poorest children who were bearing the brunt of the air pollution crisis.
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The results show nearly double the number of educational institutions than previously highlighted are affected by illegal levels of toxic air. A report that was kept secret by former mayor Boris Johnson revealed last year 433 primaries were exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution. [The hidden report of Tory mayor Boris Johnson was already revealed in reports over a year ago … what’s The Guardian’s “exclusivity”? – Oui]The new data shows 802 out of 3261 nurseries, primary and secondary schools and higher education colleges, are within 150 metres of nitrogen dioxide pollution levels that exceed the EU legal limit of 40µg/m3 (40 micrograms per cubic metre of air).
A third of state nursery schools in the capital (27), nearly 20% of primaries (360) and 18% of secondary schools (79) are in areas where toxic levels of nitrogen dioxide threaten children’s health.
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Air pollution in London, as seen from Hackney. April 2015. [David Holt/Flickr]
From my visit to London as written in my diary …
UK Brexit Problem: Migration not Immigration
On recent visits to London I was astonished about bureaucracy (as I knew it before Thatcher), inefficient organisation at the local level, overcrowded primary schools, many expanded with temporary units, massive poverty and inequality, delapited infrastructure of highways throughout Greater London, smog and high levels of pollution in urban housing areas. In the rush hour of pedestrians moving towards Canary Wharf, 90% were well dressed young people (age 25-35) all connected to smartphones and talking, large majority speaking a foreign language (Asian and East-European), no interaction with surroundings, quite ambitious which is as it should be. Beggars were stationed on a number of places, sitting on newspapers to protect themselves somewhat from the cold. The NHS is coming under attack for years now.
○ Read: European Court of Justice rules UK must clean up air pollution
Unlike the smoky pollution of the past, NO2 is a hidden killer . “These days you can’t see pollution, you can’t smell it or taste it, so you’d be forgiven for thinking there was no pollution – but there certainly is,” says Monsour.
His next stop is a primary school in Poplar, one of the 1,000 schools in London sitting just 150 metres or less from roads on which at least 10,000 vehicles go past. This school is just 10m or so from the roaring A12, where more than 100,000 HGVs, coaches, construction trucks and cars roar past, while others queue for the nearby exit to the equally busy A13.
[Source: EurActiv]
