Last week we covered data about how bad wood-burning stoves were for air quality. During these challenging fiscal times, it is often commented that burning wood is a way of heating homes more cheaply than by other methods. On Tuesday some interesting research was published, which highlighted that in most cases wood burning stoves are more expensive too - only where the vast majority of wood was free did it become economically more favourable to burn wood. So which groups of people are burning wood? A DEFRA report from 2020 showed that almost half of all indoor burners (46%) were from the highest AB social grades. Tut, tut middle classes and their carbon comforts.
Inequality bites
In Louise's work at Zinc, she is hearing more and more about the links between maternal and unborn/neonatal health and air pollution. Unfortunately, this was not something that was discussed much during either of her pregnancies. Studies show a strong correlation between exposure to air pollution and premature births, low birth weight and neurological development of the foetus, as we've discussed before. Expectant mothers also take risks for themselves, with cardiovascular heart disease being a key contributor to maternal mortality - to which we know air pollution contributes. There has also been a recent study from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences showing the link between long-term exposure to air pollution (specifically particulate matter and ozone) during pregnancy and postpartum depression, which affects 10-20% of women worldwide. There is a strong link in all this with the social determinants of health - poorer and often ethnic minority communities living in areas of higher pollution and therefore experiencing much higher rates of ill health.
Meanwhile the debate about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) continues. We were humbled this week to read an article from David Smith, clean air and social justice campaigner, non-car owning cyclist, advocate for public transport, ambassador for cargo bikes and advocate for school streets. Yet he is against LTNs, which he says displace traffic to roads where poorer people tend to spend more of their time and clog up bus lanes. He quotes Rosamund Kissi-Debrah who is also concerned, linking this to her clearly catastrophic experience of living near a main road.
The article sat alongside one from our local councillor Rezina Chowdhury, covering the Lambeth Electric Vehicle Strategy, with (we thought) a reasonable argument that: it's not all about a drive to more EVs, it's actually about reducing cars on the road in general. However, in this article she refers to evidence about reduction in traffic in both neighbourhood and boundary roads from LTNs. (Her article is unfortunately less well referenced than the other, but we have previously seen studies by Imperial College and LSE that show traffic is not increased on boundary roads). This is clearly something that needs ongoing monitoring and analysis, so we are grateful for the Breathe London node in the centre of Brixton that allows us to contribute to this body of knowledge.
Taking it back to the streets
The school streets that is. We posted earlier about the School Streets programme at our now 12 year old’s school, Jessop Primary in Lambeth. We were delighted to learn from Lambeth Council minutes that our 4 year old’s school, St Jude’s, will be getting their own School Street. It’s a while away though, only making an appearance between December 2024 and October 2026. We’d love to hear more from the schools that are in the early waves.