Pollutionwatch: June 2008

Pollution levels across the UK in June were generally very low, however Leamington Spa suffered from its own special, localised pollution problem. Demolition began on a building containing the town’s magistrates courts. The site is very close to a national monitoring station which provided a very clear picture of significant pollution levels that some building practices can lead to. Concentrations of particles exceeded health based targets on 12 days out of 30 last month, with concentrations rising to ‘High’ on 4 days and even to ‘Very High’ on the 9^th.

Major cities are increasing concerned about the impacts of building work and are putting regulations and guidelines in place to minimise dust, noise and other environmental problems. The extent to which the construction industry is taking this on board is illustrated by the fact that the term ‘demolition’ is gradually being replaced by ‘deconstruction’. In Leamington Spa however, images in the local media show the local Sheriff proudly commencing the demolition with no apparent measures put in place to control dust from the site, and the consequent impact of the resulting pollution has been clearly measured.

Particle pollution is comprised of a range of very small lumps suspended in the air. Some of these lumps are soot from combustion processes such as industry and vehicles, some are formed by chemical processes in the atmosphere, and others are simply ‘dust’ – lifted from soil, roads or building works. Whilst most dust is not considered to be directly toxic (except specific cases like asbestos), many people think that there may be a significant impact on our health simply from our bodies having to react to every particle we inhale as a separate ‘invader’.