MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
From the BBC, just enter post code.
My area is "good" incredibly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42566393
Not surprisingly, where I live is a 1 (tiny village in middle of a forest)
The air is noticeably clean when walking/riding around
I don't believe the results for mine as I live in an area with significant particulates pollution. This doesn't take account of that only NOx
My street, and the rest of Leeds apparently, is 1 out of 6.
So why is Leeds on the list of cities for pollution charging?? Or is this just a load of balls???
Without doing that I reckon ours is pretty bad... Somedays I can see it 😯
2/moderate apparently. I’m surprised! Just outside Manchester centre.
1 here, only a couple of hotspots around traffic pinch points in our town. I was in that London at the weekend, and quickly started feeling bunged up and stuffy. Trying to clear it, my normally nice clean green bogies were black and rank.
1..no real surprise..
Good, halfway up a hill in a wood, I would've thought so
1 in a semi rural part of West Lancs.
1. Where I live (unsurprising, Loughborough)
1. Where I work (surprising, Derby next to the Royces engine test beds!)
Without doing that I reckon ours is pretty bad... Somedays I can see it
2! I call scam
Some of the best in the world here now no need to check. Then I move to Manchester next month.
Why do BBC use images of cyclists, runners and green spaces in an article about how crap our air is? Surely they need images of lines of traffic, parked cars blocking everywhere, office heating plumes etc?
Mine is 1 apparently, I live just off a dual carriageway a mile from the M4...
Next week on BBC Worldwide, check our interactive map to see where most people are concerned about air quality. We asked 5000 concerned people for their postcodes...
Just checked my old London office postcode, a 3.
Where do you have to live to score 5?
In a security office at a coal fired power station?
1 at home, not a surprise. 2 at work, would have thought it would be higher as on the Queensway on the outskirts of Birmingham. But apparently all of Birmingham is a 2.
1 at home, 4 in work which is on Hagley Rd in Edgbaston, Birmingham so not really a suprise there.
Utter horseshit.
I got a 2 yet we are sufficiently close to the M62 for it to be classed as an asthma hot spot.
The level of pollution is one of the reasons why the local farm land can't be built on. If all of a sudden there is no pollution will the diggers roll in?
2. London suburbs. It would be useful to have particulates on that too, but is that very much more variable depending on weather?
The cyclist is wearing a "mask", the runner is clearly set against a background that is supposed to be smog and the mummy in the park is clearly looking down over a polluted city...Why do BBC use images of cyclists, runners and green spaces in an article about how crap our air is? Surely they need images of lines of traffic, parked cars blocking everywhere, office heating plumes etc?
People are too thick to link parked cars to a pollution problem. Office heating plumes are usually steam rather than classic pollutants (so would be misleading), and we are always telling people cyclists are traffic so I think you are getting concerned for the wrong reasons. Now why are they only showing images of seemingly fit, healthy people who are least affected by the pollution and not those with respiratory disease it kills?
More confusingly the centre of my small town scores 1 (the best) but the local eco-lobby are always making a big deal about it being one of the worst X towns in the country [something like 6th worst in Scotland - but I can't remember the exact stat]. Is the data being spun to make us believe the UK is cleaner than it really is? Who funded this NOx only data? How was it measured?
1 which is surprising given we have a log burner.
People are too thick to link parked cars to a pollution problem. Office heating plumes are usually steam rather than classic pollutants (so would be misleading), and we are always telling people cyclists are traffic so I think you are getting concerned for the wrong reasons. Now why are they only showing images of seemingly fit, healthy people who are least affected by the pollution and not those with respiratory disease it kills?
I get what you are saying, I just think there is an underlying 'negative' association here. I am sure someone like Bez would put it into words better than I can.
Heating plumes do have huge pollutants - 38% of London NOX is from heating compared to 5% from diesel cars....
London:
Home, 2, equals average for Waltham Forest, borough includes North Circular and M25.
Euston Station: 3, carries on from Marylebone Rd, worst in uk according to the article
Hyde Park Corner: 5, ditto
Rubbish.
1 where we live in MK, where we used to live is a 2 in London, but I strongly suspect taht is BS as I know Borris had teh pollution monitoring station nearby turned off as it was so high!
Home is a 1. Where I work in Manchester is only a 2.
A 1 rating. No surprise as I live in a low density suburb with open countryside on two sides including to the west where the prevailing winds come from. In the house now I can't hear or see any traffic. Very few woodburners either.
My exposure will come from work where I drive several hours most days. Very little time in city centres there either though.
really?
propoganda is what it is
the air quality in most urban areas is: unhealthy.
if you want to know how bad it is got for a ride with a white scarf over your mouth and nose or have a jog down the high street and then try saying the alphabet backwards
Hmm.
I am a 1, but then it said the average for my area was a 1, so i typed in the post code for the steelworks (which is also right next to the M4).. its also a 1. Doesnt seem quite right!
Heating plumes do have huge pollutants - 38% of London NOX is from heating compared to 5% from diesel cars....
Have you got a link for that, Matt?
Paris can't be very different to London and vehicles represent 66% of NOX with diesels being the main culprit. Page 7:
Paris can't be very different to London and vehicles represent 66% of NOX with diesels being the main culprit. Page 7:
I thought unlike the UK France has a high percentage of electric heating because of cheap nuclear power. So a lower peecentage of air polution from heating
if you want to know how bad it is got for a ride with a white scarf over your mouth and nose or have a jog down the high street and then try saying the alphabet backwards
I'm not sure I could say the alphabet backwards if I was on pure oxygen.
its not fixed and changes constantly, you get plumes moving around all the time, my folks live on the south coast and if you look at a real time map there can can be a large area of pollution come over from europe that would mean its worse there than for me in london.
also i am 300yds from a monitoring station that is by the terminus for 10 bus routes so get a hit particulate reading but the prevailing wind is nearly always pushing that away from me.
It seems slightly odd.
2 at the flat a leafy street a shortish (7min walk) from busy traffic route,
2 at work, Canary Wharf,
2 at Barbican which is half way on the cycle commute near all of the lorries for construction/crossrail etc
Gas is a popular form of heating in Paris. The Guardian claims vehicles are "largely" responsible for NOX pollution in London. I'd like to see where Matt got his 5% for diesel vehicles because it flies in the face of every study I've seen. Matt unlike some doesn't usually make stuff up so I'm keen to see his source.
The pollution rating at G2 6AA is 1 out of 6 (good)
Shenanigans!
In case anyone is wondering, that's for 26 Hope Street, the most polluted spot in Glasgow, Scotland and, occasionally, the UK. The air quality monitor near enough across the road from here and the taxi rank is just along the street.
Utter BS of the highest order.
Flip it around.
Most people in the UK don't know what poor air quality is.
The first time I went to Azerbaijan was an eye opener to just how good we have it.
Like wise Angola and Nigeria. The smog is so bad it's like chewing on fumes and it's 24/7 365.
That's not to say we can't improve. But maybe you need to realign your 1-6
As other people have said, this is vague enough to be almost meaningless.
Air pollution is a highly variable and heavily localised thing which a general snapshot is unlikely to pick up. It varies with lots of factors including weather, wind direction and background levels, and can even be significantly worse on one side of a street than on the other.
A look at your local AQMAs will tell you much more about pollution in your area, and whether it's getting better or worse.
https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/aqma/