Just a month into 2018 and London’s air pollution reached the legal limit for the entire year. While this is pretty dreadful, it's also a significant improvement over recent years.
In the past decade air pollution has reached illegal levels no more than a week into the year. Air toxicity has been at illegal levels in urban areas in the UK, including London, since 2010, resulting in around 40,000 early deaths a year.
The improvement can in part be attributed to Mayor Sadiq Khan’s actions to tackle the issue such as cleaner bus routes through the worst polluted areas and introducing charges to deter older, dirty vehicles into the city.
"This shows the measures we have already taken in the capital are beginning to take effect," he told The Guardian. "I am using all the powers I have to their fullest extent to tackle this health crisis. But it’s about time the government recognised the true scale of this issue."
But until radical changes are made the situation isn't drastically going to improve. Thankfully, there are some small changes you can make to help clean-up toxic air in London and reduce the amount inhaled.
Why is London's air so toxic?
Get more plants
Director of the University of Technology Sydney Plants and Indoor Environmental Quality Research Group, Dr Fraser Torpy says the air inside our homes and offices can often be more polluted than the air outside. Heating, cooking, cleaning, smoking, and perfumes can all be sources of indoor pollutants. But, keeping plants around your home - and keeping them alive - will help manage carbon dioxide levels up to 25 percent in a building without air conditioning. He says any medium plant above 20 centimetres in size will have a significant impact and palms are the clear winner for reducing CO2 levels.
Encourage anti-pollution bus stops
Piccadilly-based startup Airlabs last year turned three London bus stops into clean air zones. Air cleaning units were installed inside the bus shelters, filtering out up to 97 per cent of nitrogen-dioxide from the air so commuters could breathe easy while waiting for the bus. King’s College London independently tested the technology at one of London’s most polluted streets, Marylebone Road. CEO Sophie Powers said at the time of the campaign, which ran for three weeks, that the company decided to target bus stops because they are some of the most polluted parts of the city.
Turn smog into diamonds
Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde was so impacted by Beijing’s pollution problem that he built a tower to suck it up. The solar-powered Smog Free Tower has been used in Rotterdam, Tianjin, and Dalian, as well as Beijing, sucking up 30,000 cubic metres of polluted air per hour, cleaning it at the nano level and releasing the clean air back to the city. Once finished, the air around the tower was 55 to 75 percent cleaner than the rest of the city. But, left with the pollution particles, made up of 42 per cent carbon, Roosegaarde looked to making jewelry. Compressing the particles for 30 minutes created diamonds that represented 1,000 cubic metres of polluted air.
Use eco-friendly paints and home products
A report released in 2016 by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health found as many as 99,000 deaths across Europe in 2012 were caused by indoor air pollution. "The lemon and pine scents that we use to make our homes smell fresh can react chemically to generate air pollutants, and ozone-based air fresheners can also cause indoor air pollution,” the researchers said. Switching home cleaning products, paints, candles and air fresheners to eco-friendly or natural alternatives is the best way to keep the pollution in the home low.
Personal air sensors
Those most at risk from the polluted air – young children, joggers, people with asthma, for example – can use personal air sensors to track pollution ‘hot spots.' The Flow device is a handheld sensor that monitors exposure to the three most harmful pollutants: volatile compounds, airborne particulates and nitrogen oxides. The sensors are connected to a mobile app that creates pollution maps similar to the way traffic jams can be monitored through smartphones. Outside data collected on wind flow, temperature and other variables works with the information collected from each sensor to forecast pollution hotspots, so parents can choose to keep their children indoors or joggers and cyclists can choose a different route.
Use face masks for an outdoor commute
As research suggests smaller particles in polluted air including dust, dirt, soot, and smoke are responsible for the adverse health effects experienced in major cities, more commuters who choose not to drive or take the subway are opting for face masks that filter out the bad stuff. The particles that cause the greatest health risks are just 2.5 microns in diameter and invisible to the naked eye. To best protect against these during a walking or cycling commute is to find an anti-pollution mask that are able to filter more than 95 per cent of airborne particles.