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"Seeing a family member who has trouble breathing properly because of my neighbors' actions is not something I should be concerned about." This moving line appeared in a letter to a Canadian newspaper and the problem was wood stoves and nearby house fires, the writer, Colin Oakes, explained exactly what he thought of the people around him: "Burn wood, with all its health risks, is tantamount to attacking members of the community. "
Are we finally aware of the damage caused by air pollution? In the years to come, will the pollution of our air be thought in the same way as plastic waste, passive smoking or drunk driving?
So, what are the alternatives for a hot home but less polluting and less polluted? New wood burning stoves that meet the latest standards are an option. These are very different from open fires or old furnaces and are carefully designed to introduce air into different parts of the flame in order to burn the smoke. However, even stoves meeting the latest European standards for eco-design can still emit the same particle pollution as six modern trucks. Clearly, it would not be acceptable to drive six trucks into your street all evening; the neighbors would be right in the arms.
There are new gas boilers with low-emission burners and heat pumps that function as refrigerators in the opposite direction. These produce much less polluting particles than wood. The best systems now learn how the outside cold affects your home in order to optimize the use of energy, save money and reduce emissions related to climate change . You can control them from your mobile phone and have a nice warm house when you arrive home.
Around London, parents and teachers worry about air pollution near schools. Those who can afford it settle in less polluted areas and in less polluted areas. There is also growing social pressure on motorists passing by schools and parents driving their diesel cars for daily descent. In a recent survey, 80% of respondents were in favor of banning diesel cars near schools.
To protect children, gates will be closed every day on the roads around four primary schools in Greenwich. In these densely populated areas, most children live within walking distance of their school. Walking your child to school can be fun: as a parent, I've renewed my Scotch skills, avoiding sidewalk cracks and playing counting games by adding up the number streetlights and red doors that we crossed.
Modern air pollution is largely invisible. This means that it can be difficult to measure. It is even more difficult to choose the least polluted route to get to school. There are now many portable sensors that you can wear and read the results on a screen or on your phone.
But buyer, beware. Normally, technology is created in university labs and forged in the fire of peer review science and only the best are marketed. The development of small air pollution sensors has been different. Technological start-ups build devices for sale directly to the public, without independent evaluation. It is not certain that these small sensors will flood people with dubious data or that they will keep their promise, allowing people to detect the invisible air pollution that surrounds them.
Putting personal sensors aside, a good start for a low-pollution route to school or elsewhere is simply to avoid traffic. If you live in London or Paris, you can do a lot better. Both cities produce real-time air pollution maps that you can view on your phone. So, every day, you can see which roads are the most polluted and choose the route to follow.
Signs indicating slightly polluted walking routes also appear in London. Every day, thousands of people walk between King's Cross, St Pancras and Euston. It's less than one kilometer. Most people walk along the busy Euston Road and share their air with the 60,000 buses, trucks and cars that pass each day. But follow the new directions and walk on a small road and you can halve the pollution you breathe. New routes connect useful places, such as subway stations, to shops and the theater. They could also help near schools.
This London bench absorbs as much pollution as 275 trees
In Europe, attitudes towards diesel have completely changed. Sales of diesel cars in the UK have dropped from half of all new cars in 2015 to less than a quarter now. These cars were initially sold with low carbon emissions, but are now considered a threat of air pollution. Local councils reflect this change of mood and have started charging extra fees for parking diesel cars and some cities are asking older car drivers to drive on the street. A steady stream of revelations about exhaust testing has eroded confidence.
When buying a car, it is impossible to see which are the least polluting. About five years ago, Nick Molden, an expert in air quality, and his friends started renting cars and fastening equipment at the back to measure exhaust gases during their movements. They then put the data online. Until then, the only users of these data were the manufacturers and they did not share them. The Molden website now mentions the exhaust gases of more than 1,600 different cars and vans. Hybrids and gasoline cars do better and often better than what legal standards require. The worst diesel cars tested in 2017 produced 32 times more nitrogen oxides than the best ones. Thus, it is important not only to drive a diesel engine or not, but to choose which one.
However, the best way to reduce air pollution from your car is to leave it at home. The bike is now the most popular rush hour vehicle in the city of London. In England, a quarter of journeys are less than three kilometers and, given the time required to park, it is actually faster to walk or cycle in most cases. In a smog-free city, a well-used bike or worn out shoes can become the new symbol of positive action.
Gary Fuller is a scientist working on air pollution at King's College London. His new book, The Invisible Killer: The Growing Global Threat of Air Pollution – and How We Can Fight it, is out now.
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