Pollutionwatch: July 2007

The Met Office's use of the term 'generally unsettled' hardly begins to describe the desperately wet and windy conditions that kept air pollution to a minimum throughout July. This was in total contrast to last July when 3 separate smog warnings had to be issued. Last month saw the launch of the latest update to the UK's Air Quality Strategy. The document outlines future policies for the UK governments to follow to further improve air quality. Despite great improvements being made in air quality since the 1950s, air pollution is still estimated to reduce the average UK lifespan by 7-8 months. Ten years after the original Strategy, the new version provides a good staging post to evaluate the air quality management programme in the UK. However, it appears to offer little in the way of anything new to tackle the problems that have led to almost half of UK local authorities declaring Air Quality Management Areas. It relies very much on providing incentives for the uptake of new, cleaner technologies. But whilst evidence suggests that these policies have been very cost effective in the past, it may be that many of the easy gains from this approach have already been made. There are some new directions put forward in the Strategy. These include: setting out a new approach aimed at reducing overall pollution levels in urban areas rather than localised hotspots where concentrations are highest; clearly indicating the links that must be made between managing air pollution and climate change (especially with the use of bio-fuels); and emphasising the importance of air pollution impacts on eco-systems as well as on human health. The new AQS can be downloaded from http://www.defra.gov.uk