London Air Quality - Pollution

If anyone wants my mask- Its yours for £5. Picked up from RSM off Cavendish Sq tmw or saturday (probably).
Hate them- it has been used about 3 times.

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.

Well it's gonna get ridof some of PM2.5, not all of it.

It's gonna get rid of the Saharan Dust which is relatively coarse, i'd have thought mostly in the PM10 size category. If the filter is 1 micron then it will stop anything bigger than PM1 but still let through all gasses (NOx, CO, O3 etc) and all super fine material.

If you count the particles in an air sample there are exponentially more as their size goes down. i.e more between PM0 and PM1 than PM1 and PM2.5. What I'm saying is that the masks stop coarse material but let a lot of stuff through. You don't even want to think about the nano-particles you breathe in. The mask doesn't stand a chance.

That was non-expert opinion, maybe good masks have some sort of catalytic filter to trap very fine particles or gasses?

Good advice not to do excersise today because of the pollution. Probably best to drive to work tomorrow ... leave the bike at home.

Sound advice

Tommy (The Brick) advises wearing a balaclava.

under or over the facemask ?

Good advice not to do excersise today because of the pollution. Probably best to drive to work tomorrow ... leave the bike at home.

Sound advice

It's FUBAR isn't it. How long before this is normal?

still reckon the taxi lobby needs to be properly taken on and encouraged to 'go-green', see quite a lot of smog still sauntering out of those exhaust pipes;

as for those Respro face masks - they are inhumane to look at and inhumane to wear: sweaty taste, clammy feel;

All new London taxis after 2018 will be capable of zero emissions (You just have to ignore the power plant and the time they are not running in zero emissions mode). Slow, but progress:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25756929

We should probably just hold our breath 'till then.

^^^^ This.

The standard london taxi, a lot of them are still running on 1950's landrover diesels, the slightly newer ones run an 80's nissan/isuzu IDI motor, then the very new ones run a euro iv diesel from about 10 years ago. Considering there are so many of them, and they spend 99% of their time in the city at inefficient speeds and driving cycles I'd have thought it was key that these vehicles are the most efficient/ emission regulated and NOT that guy that drives down once a year into London in his 1999 VW T4 from Bedford to help his mate move house. But thats just my view!

Problem is, there's a lot of cabbies compared to the once a year guy. They're noisy and they'll protest which means they're far more likely to have things stay as they are, their way.

god imagine if cabs ever went electric
the only way we manage to stay out from under their wheels is beacuse of the clanking diesel which gives you a few seconds warning

silent killers do not want

Agreed. Its bad enough when a sneaky rear engined bus sneaks up on you, sneakily.

I move too fast for anything to sneak up.

Surely their current engines must be costing the drivers a fortune in diesel?

Shouldn't cabbies be screaming for more efficient cabs?

Or is the fuel all a tax deductable so they DGAF?

red diesel from some dodgy garage in bethnal green innit

^^ last cabbie I talked to about this welcomed the idea for exactly that reason.

I guess it depends on who owns the Cabbie's cab? If cabs are leased by a company that owns lots of them that company might not be too chuffed that its fleet is going to be outlawed. In that case its not the owner of the Cab but its driver who foots the fuel bill.

I think LDN cabbies earn more than enough to not have to worry about fuel costs! Elsewhere in the country its probably more of a concern.

Good point about them sneaking up on you though, for me its those Lexus hybrid 4x4's, as they are often only inch's off your back wheel and you do not hear them until they tear past and the v8 kick's back in :s

One in 14 deaths caused by pollution

http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/air_pollution_causes_one_in_14_deaths_in_redbridge_report_finds_1_3545150

As someone who has lived on or by the A12/A406 for all of my life I guess there isn't
much hope for me.

But I guess that explains why they have planted around 100 new trees in the middle of Redbridge Roundabout.

I think I'm suffering from late onset allergy to exhaust fumes, probably diesel particulates - at least that's what my GP thinks.

I fear that this has been caused, at least in part, by too much riding in London for too many years. Last year I was so bad that I was more or less prevented from riding at all. This year I'm quite a lot better, but not perfect. However I have made a point of riding as little as possible in central London, and generally when I go for a ride I start off in the car to get away from Willesden before I start riding. This is not how it ought to be.

One point that I would like to raise here, particularly because I haven't seen it made elsewhere, is that the majority of new car sales are now diesels. Yes, I know they've got particle filters, but as I understand it these don't work even on pm10's, let alone 2.5's. So there's not going to a huge gain from having electric cabs, when virtually every other vehicle on the road is diesel.

I think I'm suffering from late onset allergy to exhaust fumes, probably diesel particulates - at least that's what my GP thinks.

I fear that this has been caused, at least in part, by too much riding in London for too many years. Last year I was so bad that I was more or less prevented from riding at all. This year I'm quite a lot better, but not perfect. However I have made a point of riding as little as possible in central London, and generally when I go for a ride I start off in the car to get away from Willesden before I start riding. This is not how it ought to be.

One point that I would like to raise here, particularly because I haven't seen it made elsewhere, is that the majority of new car sales are now diesels. Yes, I know they've got particle filters, but as I understand it these don't work even on pm10's, let alone 2.5's. So there's not going to a huge gain from having electric cabs, when virtually every other vehicle on the road is diesel.

The DPF is just something put there by car manufacturers to keep the EU happy, they only remove the larger particles letting a lot of of the smaller more harmful get through. Things are only going to get worse, no one has the balls to stand up and say it isn't ok and do something proactive about it. Despite the British government being fined for failing to keep pollution below the threshold nothing will happen from it, the fine will be paid and things will go along as usual.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/walk-away-from-kerb-to-avoid-fumes-in-london-adviser-urges-9335615.html

London pollution in places is worse than Beijing airpocalypse

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-27/london-s-dirty-secret-pollutes-like-beijing-airpocalyse.html

per Oliver and pharoahsanders,

Walk away from kerb to avoid fumes in London, adviser urges

London’s Dirty Secret: Pollution Worse Than Beijing’s

could LCC spare some support for the Clean Air London campaign, to help movement towards solutions?!