Clean Air Day 2025
Gosh those levels are bad
Today is Clean Air Day!*
Louise has been on a walk and wheel today from Great Ormond Street Hospital to Parliament, primarily with health professionals demanding action on clean air. It was a great event organised by GOSH and Global Action Plan - really well attended. As well as doctors, Louise got to catch up with Stephen Holgate, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Frank Kelly, Jemima Hartshorn, Agnes Agyepong and Mete Coban.
Act for Clean Air
The message to Parliament was clear - act on clean air to protect our health. And it may prove possible for Parliament to do that, as the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill - also known as Ella’s Law - will shortly be reintroduced by Sian Berry MP. Write to your MP if you want to see the Bill supported through Parliament!
And timed for Clean Air Day, the Royal College of Physicians brought out an update of their seminal report ‘Every Breath We Take’ bringing the spotlight back onto air pollution as a medical concern. We will aim to review this report properly in the coming weeks but for now we hope lawmakers and policy makers stop and take notice.
*Or is it a Clean Air Day? Levels were already rising when Louise went on a pre-7am run - with nitrogen dioxide getting up to 43 micrograms per cubic metre. On the walk itself, 74 micrograms was recorded, which is high but sadly not that unusual for central London. At our Brixton monitoring node they were creeping up today, though not actually as bad as earlier this month.
If you missed the events today, don’t worry. Poetic Unity are putting on their now annual bike ride from Brixton at 11am on Sunday morning - demanding Clean Air for the Ends. We’ll be there!