A site in the London borough of Brent has provisionally become the first location in London this year to breach the PM10 Objective under the National Air Quality Strategy.Â
Details of the breach, which is subject to a data audit, have been revealed by the London Air organisation which is run by King’s College. Researchers at London Air reported on 10 April 2012, that the site had breached the national strategy PM10 objective. London Air said:Â “The NAQS objective allows a daily mean PM10 concentration of 50 ug m-3 on not more than 35 days per year. Provisional measurements indicate that PM10 on Neasden Lane has been above this threshold for 36 days during 2012.”
The researchers said that the breaches at Neasden Lane “are very important with respect to exposure of local residents. Over recent years, PM10 concentrations have improved at the Neasden Lane monitoring site; the 50 ug m-3 threshold was exceeded on 167 days in 2006 and this decreased to 77 days in 2011.
Waste sites
It is known that PM10 concentrations are elevated in sites close to the waste management industry and sites in the area are handling metals and mixes of commercial and industrial as well as other residual wastes.
A statement from the local authority added: “We want to protect the health of local people, so we set up a monitoring station in Neasden which confirmed that standards for the quality of the air are being repeatedly breached. We are now taking a number of steps to address the issue including: Â
- working closely with the Environment Agency to develop enforcement action
- more work to identify exactly what the sources of the dust are
- putting down dust suppressant on at the Goods Yard and Neasden Lane
- working with TFL to do a deep clean of Neasden Lane to remove dust.”