How Healthy Are ‘Healthy School Streets’?

The City of London has made a step in the right direction to tackle air quality problems London wide: Camden Council has successfully won new funding to help implement the switch to zero emission vehicles. The successful bid was made to the Mayor of London, Transport for London and London Councils to improve London’s air quality.

This is Camden’s next step in their tougher approach on air pollution: The borough previously Increased standards in alignment with the World Health Organisation. They are the first and only UK borough to do so. They hope to inspire other boroughs to follow in their footsteps.

A Cabinet Member for Improving Camden’s Environment, Councillor Adam Harrison, had this to say about the campaign: “Cleaning up our air is one of the major challenges of our era. Concerns about air quality in this area are high on the agenda for the council, residents and schools. The impact of the ‘school run’ is something residents across the borough have raised with us very forcefully. With this new funding, pupils will benefit from a range of measures. These Include streets in the local area being restricted to electric vehicles and local access only.”

The successful bid, in the region of over £350,000, will be match funded to help a School Low Emission Neighbourhood. Over 8,500 students within 23 schools will benefit from the proposal as restrictions will see electric vehicles and low access only. There will be electric vehicle charging points in school car parks and more points to power up at lamp posts closer to home.

‘Healthy School Streets’ will also be implemented across the area. Traffic will be restricted on those streets, at the start and end of the school day, except for electric vehicles and essential access. All of these positive changes hope to have a lasting effect on air quality surrounding these school zones.

Although this is a positive step forward, there is one major problem with this proposal – it will only benefit outdoor air pollution, not indoor.

When students, teachers and other facility staff enter these or any other schools, they face an entirely new problem of indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollutants include disease-causing viruses and bacteria, allergens, dust, harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and odours. These pollutants easily occur indoors. They are spread by common cold and flus, cleaning products, beauty products, refurbishment and maintenance products – vanish, paint etc. and many more. They are a threat to the vulnerable and susceptible, especially children.

With endless negative possibilities, is there a solution and if so, what? The solution is the Ingenious Air® Small Duct System. This intelligent air conditioning system has an optional high specification air purification module, which removes airborne bacteria and viruses.

It provides a safe and comfortable indoor environment with clean, purified air. The system can also add up to 100% fresh air ventilation with heat recovery ventilation. This can further improve air quality and save energy. A Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) sensor can be added to create demand-controlled ventilation. This will measure and respond to the room’s changing conditions. With a multitude of benefits, the above is only the beginning.

They say that children are our future. This means our generation is responsible for making the changes necessary for them to live a long and healthy life.

Reference: Camdengovuk. (2018). Camden success in bidding for funding to improve London’s air quality. Retrieved 8 March, 2018.