The 28th edition of Air Quality News magazine has been published and is now available to read online.
It is available to read here.
In this issue we speak to Professor Anna Stec, Professor of Fire Toxicity at the University of Central Lancashire. Anna has been working closely with the Fire Brigade’s Union to address the long-term health problems faced by firefighters, particularly the much higher incidence of cancer. And firefighters are not only
vulnerable to cancers because of their work, they are also vulnerable to misdiagnosis of these cancers because of their age, with the disease appearing up to 10 or 15 years earlier than among the general public.
Many campaign groups have targetted football clubs for a lack of environmental responsibility, but Dublin-based Bohemian FC in are not like other clubs and have created the Clean Air Champions League with support from the European Football for Development Network. Seán McCabe, the club’s Head of Climate Justice & Sustainability, tells us how the concept was conceived and what he hopes it will lead to.
We have two features in the issue about the effect of air pollution on animals. In the first, Martin Guttridge-Hewitt looks into how domestic cats and dogs suffer very similar issues to humans, such as cardiovascular problems, respiratory illness, and neurological issues. On days with poor air quality, vet admissions might be 30% higher than on good air quality days.
There is a growing amount of research into how pollinators – particularly bees – are affected by air pollution. Emily Whitehouse speaks to people working in this area to understand the larger implications of this.
Solia Arasha is a freelance journalist in Kenya. Last year she attended an workshop delivered by the Earth Journalism Network to improve the understanding of air pollution among environmental journalists. She subsequently wrote an article for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation about the hazards of slaughterhouses in Kiamaiko, speaking to many of the people affected by prolonged exposure to gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. We speak to Soila about her experience and, with the kind permission of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, reprint an extract of her article.
Professor Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey is often mentioned within these pages. He is a great enthusiast for the greening of spaces as an air improvement measure, going as far as the create a free online tool HedgeDATE to calculate the reduction in pollutant concentrations that could
be achieved by planting a hedge. Simon Guerrier speaks to him about this and more.
Our Big Interview this months is with Tom Grylls who is Head of Super Pollutants at the Clean Air Fund. Tom is currently overseeing a three year program on black carbon and is in the middle of a project on tropospheric ozone. Martin Guttridge-Hewitt digs deeper into this crucial work.
Who better than the UK Radon Association to tell us more about this much overlooked but extremely dangerous gas? They point out that the term ‘silent killer’ is often applied to carbon monoxide, and well it might, as it causes around 40 deaths a year in UK. Radon however is responsible for 1,100, deaths.
Finally, in our legal feature, Sylvie Gallage-Alwis and Anélia Naydenova from Signature Litigation’s Paris office, examine the shifting legal framework as it relates to the public’s right to clean air.