Air Quality
News about aviation and air quality
Gatwick expansion DCO inquiry begins – and will last for 6 months
The inquiry, by the Planning Inspectorate, into the DCO concerning Gatwick Airport's plan to use its emergency runway for routine flights started with an open session, and many people - both in favour of the plan, and against, allowed a brief time to speak. All those in favour were businesses, or business groups - or people in some way linked to the airport, and hoping its expansion would be good for their business in the short to medium term, and perhaps provide more good jobs. Those against were local councils and local residents who - with passion - put forward the range of negative impacts that the expansion would bring. Those would include the climate impacts of thousands more tonnes of CO2 per year; surface transport impacts; air pollution; noise pollution, especially at night; and social impacts of the pressure on local infrastructure, from many more workers at the airport, and many more air passengers. The inquiry is being held in Crawley, and is due to last six months. The submissions gave the impression that the businesses only looked at possible economic benefits, giving no consideration to local residents, or the environment - in the short or long term.
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Changes to Gatwick DCO in November, since the original application
The planning changes at Gatwick, converting the emergency runway for routine take-offs, is an attempt to "sneak" a second runway through the back door. Critics argue that the timing of Gatwick Airport's proposed changes to its expansion plans could result in people who have already commented on the plans mistakenly thinking their feedback still stands, even though the plans have now changed. Gatwick's expansion plans, to take the airport the size of Heathrow currently, are being examined by PINS, the Planning Inspectorate. Their examination may conclude in June 2024. Local group, CAGNE, says there are now some changes to the Gatwick expansion plans that were not in the original consultation. They say there will be a large increase in lorry movements due to replacing an incinerator with a waste sorting plant, not included in the Development Consent Order, traffic modelling or air quality, an incinerator that at the time of obtaining planning permission was meant to heat the north terminal. PINS needs to decide if the changes can be made to the application and included in the examination. Comments for the examination need to be submitted by 21st January 2024.
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Cancer charities call for general aviation small planes to stop using leaded fuel
While the kerosene used in the engines of commercial planes, or most private jets, does not contain lead, the AvGas (aviation gasoline) fuel used by the light planes used in "general aviation" - ie. largely hobby flying - does contain tetraethyl lead. There are 134 recreational, general aviation, airfields in the UK. There is the fear that the little piston-engine aircraft using these airfields are emitting lead, which is causing air pollution in the area. Ministers have been urged by cancer charities to follow the US and EU with plans to ban the lead-based fuel, by 2030 and 2025 respectively. The charities (Breast Cancer UK and the Cancer Prevention and Education Society, as well as Green Alliance) say the UK is in danger of “falling behind international standards” because it has left the EU’s system for regulating potentially harmful chemicals, UK REACH. Lead accumulates in the body, and there is no safe level of exposure. It has been banned from use in car fuel since 2000. There may be over 370,000 homes within 4km of general aviation airports, which may have unacceptable levels of lead pollution.
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Environmental Audit Cttee calls for rapid implementation of key environmental principles in policymaking across Government
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) argues that there is no reason for any further delay to the roll-out of the Government’s Environmental Principles, (integration, prevention, rectification at source, polluter pays and precautionary principles) which are intended to be binding on policymakers across many areas of central government. Including aviation. The Government has been designing its environmental principles for over four years. Now that the requirement on policymakers to observe environmental principles has been enacted in the Environment Act 2021, there is concern that further delay in implementation will risk principles being sidestepped by Whitehall rather than embraced. The EAC is calling for rapid finalisation and implementation of the policy statement presented to Parliament in May 2022. The Government must deliver on its ambition for the policy statement to be finalised and embedded across government policymaking, by autumn of 2022. The UK was previously obliged to follow environmental principles in the EU Treaties, and is still bound by a number of international agreements on environmental protection. Brexit offered a significant opportunity to shape the implementation of environmental principles to domestic circumstances.
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Ultrafine particles from aircraft engines can spread miles downwind of airports and can endanger lives
There is growing evidence that suggests tiny particles - ultrafine - of air pollution can affect the heart, lungs, blood pressure and risk foetal growth. These tiny particles, as well as larger ones, are emitted from vehicle engines and from plane engines. The tinier the particle, the further it can get into the lung, and thus into the blood circulation - and hence the widespread effects. Now research by Dr Gary Fuller at Gatwick has shown that the number of ultrafine particles 500 metres downwind of the airport was greater than those at the kerb of London’s busiest roads. They mostly came from aircraft during takeoff and landing, but traffic, car parks and a large catering facility used to cook airline food all added to the problem. Ultrafine particles can travel a long way downwind of an airport, eg. miles from the airport in Los Angeles, and also miles into London from Heathrow. Although known to be a health hazard, ultrafine particles are not included in the environmental assessments for planning applications, putting us at risk of increased air pollution for decades to come.
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Years of exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise may raise heart failure risk
Exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise over the course of many years may be associated with an increased risk of developing heart failure, and the correlation appears to be even greater in people who are former smokers or have high blood pressure, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The lead author commented: "Air pollution was a stronger contributor to heart failure incidence compared to road traffic noise; however, the women exposed to both high levels of air pollution and road traffic noise showed the highest increase in heart failure risk." And "To minimise the impact of these exposures, broad public tactics such as emissions control measures should be implemented. Strategies like smoking cessation and blood pressure control must be encouraged to help reduce individual risk." The data was part of a prospective study of over 22,000 members of the all-female Danish Nurse Cohort The women were 44 years of age and older at study enrolment and living in Denmark. Participants were recruited in 1993 or 1999. The study looked at NO2 and particulates, and took account of when and where the women moved house, over the years.
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UK government will not commit to immediate lowering of air pollution levels to WHO limits
The government has refused to commit to an immediate lowering of legal levels of air pollution. The death of Ella Kissi-Debrah, from asthma cause by air pollution, sparked calls for the immediate lowering of legal air pollution levels to bring them in line with those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO says particulate pollution from fine particulate matter PM2.5 should not exceed an annual mean of 10 μg/m3. For PM10 the limit is 20 µg/m3 annual mean. But the UK currently has higher limits for fine particulate matter: 40 µg/m3 annual mean for PM10 and 25 µg/m3 for PM2.5. The coroner investigating Ella's death, called for legally binding levels of particulate pollution to be lowered to meet the WHO limits. He said: “The evidence at the inquest was that there is no safe level for particulate matter and that the WHO guidelines should be seen as minimum requirements." There will be a public consultation on air pollution levels in January 2022, with a view to setting new air pollution targets in October 2022. There are various nice sounding, empty, statements from government about air pollution. Airports are a major source of both NO2 and particulate air pollution, from both planes and surface vehicles - with Heathrow producing the most. It is now known the pollution spreads downwind far from an airport.
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Letter to DfT: The Airports National Policy Statement should now be withdrawn, as it is out of date
The Supreme Court ruled, on December 16th, that the Airports National Policy Statement (NPS) was legal. The ANPS is the policy document necessary to Heathrow to proceed with plans for a 3rd runway. But the Court ruling does NOT give the runway consent. The government did not challenge the earlier ruling, in February, by the Appeal Court. The ANPS was written around 2017-18 and approved in Parliament in June 2018. Since then, life has moved on, and it is very out of date. The economics of the situation have changed; awareness of the climate implications of a runway is hugely greater; the Committee on Climate Change has given its advice on the Sixth Carbon Budget, and that aviation growth has to be constrained; knowledge has increased about the health impacts of air pollution from aircraft; and now Covid has reduced demand for air travel, which may never recover to its 2019 level. Neil Spurrier, from the Teddington Action Group (TAG) has written to the DfT to ask that the ANPS is now withdrawn. He says the ANPS "is now completely out of date and should be withdrawn. I request that this is done pursuant to a review under section 6 of the Planning Act 2008 ..." See Neil's full letter.
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Effects on cardiovascular and respiratory systems of short-term exposures to ultrafine particles in air, near an airport, in healthy subjects
There is a growing body of research into the negative health impacts of very tiny particulate air pollution. The nanoparticles of ≤20 nm are produced by vehicle engines, but seem to be produced in considerable amounts by jet engine. A new study in the Netherlands looked at impacts on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of 21 healthy young (18 - 35), non-smoking volunteers. They were exposed between 2 and 5 times to 5 hour periods of the ambient air near Schiphol airport, while doing intermittent moderate exercise like cycling. Various aspects of their circulation and respiration were measured. The study found the exposures were associated with decreased FVC (forced vital capacity - a measure of lung function) and prolonged QTc intervals (the time it takes the heart to re-polarise for the next beat).The effects were relatively small, but they appeared after single exposures of 5 h in young healthy adults. "As this study cannot make any inferences about long-term health impacts, appropriate studies investigating potential health effects of long-term exposure to airport-related UFP, are urgently needed."
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Air pollution is likely to increase the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes
Research in 2015 showed that there is a link between air pollution and the development of Type 2 diabetes. [That is the diabetes people generally acquire later in life, that is treated with medication, rather than insulin injection]. The study looked at 102 published studies from various countries. The results stated: "Air pollution is a leading cause of insulin resistance and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The association between air pollution and diabetes is stronger for traffic associated pollutants, gaseous, nitrogen dioxide, tobacco smoke and particulate matter." And the conclusions: "Exposure to air pollutants is significantly associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is suggested that, environmental protection officials must take high priority steps to minimize the air pollution, hence to decrease the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus." There is probably more research needed, to establish details, but it appears that there is definite positive link between the two. So areas with high levels of particulate and NOX air pollution, such as around Heathrow, are likely to see more ill health, including more diabetes.