London Air Quality - Pollution

"London has the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of any capital city in Europe."

Yay! We win at something.. anything!

isn't that the stuff they fill balloons with and it makes you all giggly / light headed when you breath it in ?

*goes outside and takes some big lungfuls of londons famous londons air *

hmmmm cough cough wretch phlegm

nos

n20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide

Nitrogen Oxide as opposed to Dioxide. One makes you fall down, the other makes you fall down dead.

NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) as opposed to N2O (Nitrous Oxide).

Yeah, that. Laughing Gas, hehehe haha

not that NOS isnt bad for you...

Cameras ready, prepare to Flash!

You people are slow... You guys need NOS

Monday = not firing on all cylinders.

We need NJS.

West End shoppers are being ‘gassed by pollution’

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/west-end-shoppers-are-being-gassed-by-pollution-8671264.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/west-end-shoppers-are-being-gassed-by-pollution-8671264.html

quite liking these zero-emission Oxford Street transit suggestions from Anon.,

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/11_Cable_Car_on_Powell_St_crop%2C_SF%2C_CA%2C_jjron_25.03.2012.jpg/220px-11_Cable_Car_on_Powell_St_crop%2C_SF%2C_CA%2C_jjron_25.03.2012.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Reading_Trolleybus_at_Three_Tuns.jpg/270px-Reading_Trolleybus_at_Three_Tuns.jpg

Best solution remain a tram line through Oxford Street and with new technology whereby trams can pick up power from beneath the road the need for overhead wires is removed !

Instead of wasting millions on DIESEL Borismasters London should be going back to the clean Trams and Trolley-buses which it used to have !

How much of this pollution comes from the empty taxis that Oxford Street gets clogged with ?

as for the taxis - an open question - they are clearly (or unclearly!) visible smog-polluters; i recall the @CleanAirLondon chap laying the blame with Boris, regarding the issue of who subsidises the Black Cabs being greened into zero-emission vehicles; ultimately, Londoners choose to use them, :-/

there is also the issue of whether the TFL 'Low Emissions Zone' could be more stringent, as despite its existence, London is still an Emissions Zone!!

hmmm, what's the best urban example of a LEZ???

which town / city could London learn from?!

It's not very fashionable but overheads cables used to be common,
the amount of work needed to put them back on is nothing,
compared to the road works and space needed to set up a tram line.
But tram lines look sleek and are an easier sell for mayors .
As a cyclist a tram line equals 2 car lanes gone,
but the rails involved are vicious.

Given how we're all being told how high pollution is at the moment (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26863228 , is there anything I can do to prevent my lungs being coated with Saharan dust when I'm cycling? I've never got on with those masks in the past, but perhaps things have improved of late, and there are some that actually work?

you very own hermetically sealed bubble ?

Everything tasted of car fumes this morning.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/MechanixIllustrated/3-1952/lead_bike_suit.jpg

Yeah it was pretty rank this morning. Made me really miss Nottingham's 'clean air'/

I always thought those masks were supposed to be a bit sh*te. They might stop the large particulates. But most of the nasty stuff gets through anyway.

How about one of these? Rapha price range and hi-vis too...

Or should that be in the helmet thread?

Very unpleasant out there this morning. Even my two year old said "It stink's" when we were out in the garden.
Coughing my lungs up on the way in

I don't wear one, but from the blurb from Respro, "the Techno™ filter has sub-micron filtration capability. What this means is that it is able to trap particles less than one micron in size which is more than capable of the removal of 2.5 micron particulate material (PM)."

From http://aqicn.org/city/united-kingdom/london-bloomsbury/ it appears that 2.5 is the main issue right now.

I wore my mask for the first time in ages today. I hate that thing. I think their efficacy is limited by their fit. If air can get in round the side, it's not being filtered. Mine also shuts off my nose, which probably reduces some natural filtering since I have to breathe through my mouth.

I don't wear one, but from the blurb from Respro, "the Techno™ filter has sub-micron filtration capability. What this means is that it is able to trap particles less than one micron in size which is more than capable of the removal of 2.5 micron particulate material (PM)."

From http://aqicn.org/city/united-kingdom/london-bloomsbury/ it appears that 2.5 is the main issue right now.

The main problem I've had with these masks in the past is not that they don't filter stuff effectively (who really knows if they do or don't), but the fact that you sweat prolifically underneath them. I've even got a mate who managed to get a nasty skin infection after using one for a while. What's really needed in a mask is one that allows your skin to breath - neoprene is not an ideal material.

That said - why can't we do what the Frogs do in Paris, and just start banning certain vehicles from London when pollution levels reach high levels?