CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News

Air Pollution Warning

(77 posts)

  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/?day=1

    Edinburgh forecasting 4ish = Moderate, slightly higher along the east coast. Given Edinburgh's current high-levels of atmospheric pollution on "arterial" routes, it could be even higher along these.

    A number of papers / newsmedia have spread the misinformation by trying to portray that this is somehow "foreign" smog, "blowing in" from the continent. Actually it's the weather system that makes smog more likely to form that is moving in from the continent, the atmospheric pollution is all home grown, made-in Scotland and/or UK. And given that it's a northeasterly system, it's probably a load of cobblers that it's anything to do with the continent. But you know, nothing like the meeedya whipping up a bit of cheap continent-bashing sentiment. Either way, it's our own mess now we've got to breathe it.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  2. ARobComp
    Member

    I'm in London at the moment and it was bad yesterday. It's likely to be worst today. It's seriously horrid.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  3. LaidBack
    Member

    I noticed how foul it was the other night - even through a streaming cold..

    Mrs LB works for CHSS and this air quality impacts very much on her clients.
    She is a frequent rail user though. She had meeting near Pacific Quay yesterday and the two people she met both arrived on bikes.

    This is 'business as usual' versus the climate. I've been told there can only be one winner. (Reading Naoimi Klien's new book at moment).

    Q. Does the environment matter to people?
    A. Only when it's broken.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    "A. Only when it's broken."

    Nope

    It already is.

    Perhaps -

    A. Only when it's too broken to fix.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  5. Baldcyclist
    Member

    My lungs were certainly suffering yesterday, much steroid use.

    Seems better today.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  6. SRD
    Moderator

    My 8yo's come home from school in dreadful shape everyday this week. Told her not to take part in PE today, and going to collect her early.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  7. Hmmm. I developed a really bad, hacking cough immediately after riding in to work yesterday morning in the 'mist'. Chest felt raw. It went away by lunchtime - could have been pollution-related?

    No problems riding home in the sun though, so maybe it was just set off by the cold air in the morning?

    Posted 9 years ago #
  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Edinburgh is prone to atmospheric inversions due to its position by the sea and surrounded by a ring of hills. This traps cool, damp air low over the city (hence the Auld Reekie effect). Without wind, the cool, damp air does not therefore readily disperse. The damp blanket of cool air traps pollution (it can't rise through the "lid" of the inversion and it can't readily escape laterally), sunlight above shines down and through the trapped cloud of water vapour and pollutants and causes photochemical reactions. NOXes from vehicle (especially diesel) emissions react with water vapour, ammonia and sunlight to produce nitric acid. They also react under these conditions to form Ozone. Both of these chemicals will irritate the respiratory tract. These are just 2 of the harmful chemicals that can be produced from NOx under "favourable" [sic] atmospheric conditions.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  9. SRD
    Moderator

    Murk seems to have settled back in. Realised my eyes were stinging and I was wheezing, then looked out the window :(

    Posted 9 years ago #
  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    You can see fromt the latest charts from the Edinburgh (St. Leonards) atmospheric monitoring station, that there have been NOx spikes today, yesterday and the biggest one on Tuesday. Also appears to be a big SO2 spike this afternoon.

    More details on the DEFRA site;

    http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map

    Posted 9 years ago #
  11. Baldcyclist
    Member

    Radio advising people with asthma not to do strenuous exercise today.

    Once I blow the gunge out, lungs will no doubt be fine by the time I get to the bridge. :)

    Posted 9 years ago #
  12. Mandopicker101
    Member

    This explains my sudden and inexplicable sore throat and hoarse voice this morning. Maybe I should try not to breathe on the way home...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  13. LaidBack
    Member

    http://www.scottishairquality.co.uk/latest/site-info?site_id=ED8

    Salamander St still has high levels of particulate matter.
    PM10 particulate matter (Hourly measured) MODERATE (4) 57 ugm-3

    Posted 9 years ago #
  14. Arellcat
    Moderator

    City of London air quality was horrible this morning. You could see it, taste it and almost touch it. Just a hazy grey diesel-fuelled murk. Nicer out at HS1 and Stratford.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  15. Stickman
    Member

    "Paris imposes car restrictions to fight pollution"

    ...and a 20kmp/h limit.....

    Posted 9 years ago #
  16. kaputnik
    Moderator

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31989916

    "London 'Idling' motorists in Westminster to face £20 fines".

    Taxi drivers and Neil Greig not pleased. Quelle surprise!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  17. Stickman
    Member

    One of the real problems is cars stuck in traffic - research has shown pollution is up by 30% in areas of heavy traffic. Do something to help get the traffic moving."

    Build more roads!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  18. neddie
    Member

    Neil Greig using the 'othering' technique there:

    It's all those dirty buses & lorries to blame, not us in our new 'clean' cars...

    BBC also 'othering':

    It's all those naughty people who don't switch their engines off, not us who are actually driving & generating 'wealth'

    Posted 9 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Only “clean” cars, those with uneven number plates or vehicles carrying more than three people have been permitted to enter Paris and 22 surrounding areas on Monday in an attempt to reduce the level of fine PM10 particles from diesel engines.

    Vehicles were also ordered to travel at a maximum 20kph in the city. An estimated 750 police officers were dispatched from 5.30am onwards to about 100 busy roads and junctions to hand out fines to those who ignored the measures.

    "

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/23/paris-smog-pollution-emergency-measures-traffic

    Posted 9 years ago #
  20. kaputnik
    Moderator

    As I read this from the breakfast table, there's a queue of largely single occupant cars all the way up London Road as far as the eye can see and back towards Meadowbank, idling along at less than walking pace. Same every morning.

    Breathe the utopia of the "arterial" roads that the cooncil needs to "keep moving".

    Posted 9 years ago #
  21. LaidBack
    Member

    Longannet to close. Sad for those losing their jobs. It was however in the top ten of polluters on SEPA's list if I remember correctly.

    Interesting that the Tory spokesman seemed to imagine that Scotland was producing her own power with Longannet. Coal certainly came from elsewhere!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

    No 1 probably.

    Potential for a path closer to the coast.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  23. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I think Grangemouth is 1 and Longannet is 2. Or the other way around.* EDIT - I was wrong, Longannet has 3 times the combined emissions of all the facilities at Grangemouth. (That's before the products of Grangemouth are burnt for the purposes of personal transportation).

    Coal has been coming mainly from Russia and other cheap sources since the deep mine flooded out in 2002 - I think a proportion was Scottish open cast too. The water was not the Forth thousands of feet above, but older workings under the mainland which had been abandoned and flooded; the dams between which and the active faces under the Firth collapsed.

    The Longannet scheme was very interesting from an industrial and technical point of view. Coal at one point came from faces across Fife and Clackmannanshire through a network of conveyors running in tunnels under the ground. Miners went down in one place, coal came up miles away right at the heart of the power station complex.

    Scottish Power hummed and hawwed about a Carbon Capture Scheme at Longannet, using the old mine workings I think to get the carbon down into the rock bed. Cancelled as recently as 2013, ironically blaming the cost of "green taxes". They probably just weren't that interested in massive investment in a 40 year old power station with a strictly limited shelf life.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  24. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Here's Scotland's Top 10 CO2 emitters in 2013 (2014 figures not in);

    Scottish Power Generation Ltd, Longannet PS, Kincardine, Alloa, Clackmannan - 9,513,900,328t
    Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland Limited, Bo'ness Road, GRANGEMOUTH FK3 9XH - 1,475,554,000t
    SSE Generation Limited, Peterhead Power Station, Peterhead - 1,320,000,000t
    INEOS Chemicals Grangemouth Limited, BO'NESS ROAD, GRANGEMOUTH - 903,485,000t
    ExxonMobil Chemical Limited, Fife Ethylene Plant, Mossmorran - 643,833,824t
    Fortum O&M (UK) Limited, Grangemouth CHP - 615,525,000t Ineos Infrastructure (Grangemouth) Limited, Bo ness Road, Grangemouth - 521,202,000t
    Lafarge Tarmac Cement & Lime Limited, Dunbar Plant, E.Lothian - 513,399,000t
    Scottish Power Plc, Cockenzie PS, Prestonpans - 383,294,288t
    UPM-Kymmene (UK) Limited, Caledonian Paper Mill, Meadowhead Road, Shewalton, Irvine - 358,035,904t

    Kind of puts Longannet's emissions into stark perspective.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  25. LaidBack
    Member

    Glasgow has hot spots at Hope St and Dumbarton Road.

    ' One of 16 UK cities breaching European air pollution law '
    Supreme Court challenge to city's deadly pollution

    Posted 9 years ago #
  26. dougal
    Member

    Was on holiday in France 2 weeks back. Exited CDG airport to discover public transport free to discourage private motors because of smog forecast. So waltzed onto the train into town, then through the open barriers of the metro for a few stops, not being able to cast aside the feeling that this was a trap and we'd be jumped by someone official for not paying our fares. Must have saved about 30 euro to get to our accommodation anyway.

    I would highly recommend free public transport! :-)

    Posted 9 years ago #
  27. HankChief
    Member

    Some of today's pollution was brought to you by G4s. One of their vans was pouring out toxic black smoke on Corstorphine Road. I signalled to the driver who just shrugged and carried on.
    I can still taste it and it was horrid.

    No response to my tweet to them yet.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  28. acsimpson
    Member

    I was passed by a rather bad advert for Dunfermline MOT and service centre this week with a similar plume of smoke following it. Needles to say I wouldn't recommend getting your exhaust checked by them.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  29. LaidBack
    Member

    Supreme Court have just made ruling that UK must comply - just heard on radio.

    More details to come.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  30. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Britain must urgently draw up air pollution action plan, judges order

    Supreme Court justices announce unanimous ruling in latest round of battle by environmental campaigners over levels of nitrogen dioxide in air

    "

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/11570370/Britain-must-urgently-draw-up-air-pollution-action-plan-judges-order.html

    Posted 9 years ago #

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