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Following the first issue of a “very high” air pollution warning for London under a new alert system, Tony Lewis, CIEH’s Head of Policy, said:
“The state of air quality in London is extremely worrying, affecting not only the environment but people’s health and wellbeing. It’s good to see the Mayor of London take some action to make residents aware of the high levels and his plans to reduce the amount of diesel vehicles on the road and introduce the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2020 are most welcome.
“But surely today’s air pollution warning is a wakeup call that more needs to be done and it must be done now. Not only in London but right across the UK, especially in other dense urban cities that experience similar, if not the same, problems.
“To that end, in addition to reducing diesel vehicles on the road, we would like to see better use of the planning system, more efforts to educate people about air pollution and incentives for people to use local transport, as well as fiscal incentives to support diesel scrappage schemes and increase take-up of electric and hybrid vehicles. Central Government would also be wise to look into introducing a new Clean Air Act, entrenching effective measures in legislation to tackle air pollution.”
Written by the staff at Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)
