PollutionClean air is essential for our quality of life. Although air quality in the UK is good in general, the expansion of the transport and industry sectors have lead to unacceptable levels of air pollution in many urban centres that cause harm to human health and the environment. Quote http://www.southampton.gov.uk/building-planning/planning/sustainability/air-quality.aspCatalytic converters were made compulsory on all cars built after December 1993. This has reduced many toxic emissions but there are still substantial problems with certain pollutants which are being addressed by EEC directives. All major projects such as this proposed road are required by law to have an environmental statement. Dorset county Council have of course submitted this. Within the report the section regarding air quality can be found on the link: http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media/pdf/i/m/16.pdf On page 221, table 16.1 the report lists the 'relevant' pollutants. These are fine particles and nitrogen oxides. No mention of ozone is made in the report. In January 2000 the Government adopted and Air Quality Strategy which gives what it thinks are safe limits for various pollutants in terms of density in parts per billion or other appropriate measurements and the time those exposures can be acceptable. This is all in conjunction with EEC directives. There is a long list of on the website of the Air Quality Strategy at http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/networks_home.php where they also maintain records of readings all over the country. Ozone is one of the pollutants from traffic that seem to be getting worse each year. Urban background ozone levels were 61 ?g m-3 in 2006 compared to 57 ?g m-3 in 2005. These levels have shown an overall increasing long term trend since 1993. http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=258656&NewsAreaID=2 - 36k - What is Ozone? It?s a three oxygen atoms bound together as one molecule. There?s good Ozone in the lower stratosphere which is about ten to twenty miles up in the sky. This helps protect the planet from dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation. Then there is ground level ozone, sometimes called tropospheric ozone. This is a pollutant. Ozone is like a bleach and it does damage to plants and animals It irritates and inflames our eyes and the lining of our lungs. There are clearly defined maximum levels which when exceeded, will hurt. Ozone may aggravate the effects There are clearly defined maximum levels which when exceeded, will hurt. Ozone may aggravate the effects of emphysema and bronchitis. The air going into an engine is mainly nitrogen which with the combination of pressure and heat can combine with oxygen to produce Nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. For those who like chemistry the following reaction takes place on sunny warm days: NO2 --> NO. + O O. + O2 --> O3 European directives have set a target for maximum ozone levels which are incorporated into the Air Quality Strategy Directive. From this site http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/data_and_statistics_home.php You can find this table for the number of days Bournemouth exceeded this amount. Nearly three times the strategic objective.
To date we have not been able to find the maximum levels at this site. What also can be found is that local authorities are required to give information to the public when the levels get above 180 ?gm-3 The public should alerted when levels go above 240 ?gm-3. If a local authority finds any places where the National Air Quality Objectives are not likely to be met it must declare itself as an air quality management area. In spite of results from Bournemouth and the visual evidence of the brown smog on many summer days Weymouth has not declared itself an air quality area. http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/laqm/laqm.php To quantify levels of pollution we have made a table. The French do not cope with ozone pollution as well as the English apparently! Another good website describing health impacts of Ozone pollution is http://www.airinfonow.org/html/ed_ozone.html The measurements used on this site are Air Quality Indexes. Last year in 2006 the average ozone concentration recorded on the 19th July at Wicken Fen nature reserve Cambridgeshire was 278 ?gm-3 At Lodsworth in Sussex 240 ?gm-3 was exceeded for 8 consecutive hours on the 18th July http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/reports/cat12/0701241100_APF_episode_JunJul06_FINAL_low.pdf There is an interesting publication on Air quality at http://www.empublishing.org.uk/air/aqb3.pdf Here is a map showing last years Ozone 'events'  |