The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    Re: ULEZ Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on August 1, 2023, 1:36 am, in reply to "Re: ULEZ"

    Itchy. You are seriously misguided. The research into the longevity reducing effects of air pollution is manifold and scientifically robust. You are well aware that a child doesn't go into the street one day and suddenly keel over from breathing diesel particulates or NO2. Of course this is a statistical analysis, how else could it be done. At last, we've had one medical practitioner with the courage to put down the death of an asthmatic child to air pollution.

    I don't know how old you are, but you should recall just how long it took for lead to be removed from petrol despite incontrovertible analysis and proof of the health date from many years of study. It took literally decades to stopping this poison being put into the air and the environment. All the same sort of arguments were used as we hear about dealing to this other form of air pollution. That lead is still in our environment and will remain - it's still present in worrying amounts twenty years after lead was removed from petrol Around 170,000 tonnes of lead polluted the UK in just thirty years from 1970 to 1999.

    Sadiq Khan deserves the highest praise for his single-mindedness against all the falacious reasoning and right wing political pressure that he's been facing. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air, and no-one has a right to drive a polluting vehicle, it's an historical privilege which is fortunately coming to an end.

    You must then have read the report put out by the Imperial College London - 61,800 to 70,200 life years lost annually by pollution. This represents rather more than the week you mistakenly claim, but around 6 months for any child born in London. The ULEZ will probably improve life expectency by about six months, no ULEZ will see life expectancy decrease of 7 - 11 months.

    But recall, this is an average, for children born in poverty, with chest problems or asthma or who reside in the more polluted areas these improvements might represent years of life expectancy whereas those living in the leafy suburbs or wealthier areas mightn't have much effect. We should also note the associating of air pollution with heart disease and cognitive decline.

    I believe your reason for objecting to the measure of is specious. It only applies to a certain number of people living in London, and it comes with other efforts to reduce vehicle use, car sharing, public transport, electric bicycles etc. Why would we scrap "perfectly roadworthy vehicles? Because they may be "roadworthy" but they're not "air worthy" or "climate worthy" or even "non-driving people worthy"This "sympathy for the working class", doesn't wash because it's used all the time by people who use it as a rationalisation for their antipathy. On the left, it may be a genuine concern,, but it's misguided, on the right it's just rank hypocrisy and political opportunism. . The article explains all this pretty well.

    Cheers, JKM

    Message Thread: