[cleanairuk_news] No to Silvertown Tunnel Campaign Newsletter : Citizen Science Air Pollution Study

[networkf at networkforcleanair.org.uk]

Network for Clean Air is supporting the No to Silvertown Tunnel  
campaign with a citizen science air pollution study in 2014. Their  
study is also part of another we're supporting in Deptford as part of  
our London Citizen Science Programme 2014.

Below is the first newsletter from No to Silvertown Tunnel Campaign  
(12/3/2014).


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NEWSLETTER - No to Silvertown Tunnel Campaign - 12/3/2014
www.silvertowntunnel.co.uk


Dear Supporter,

We haven't been in touch for a while, but we've been working away on  
our campaign:

* January saw us carry out an even bigger citizen science project: our  
volunteers placed pollution monitoring equipment in 100 locations  
across south east and east London. We joined forces with Don't Dump On  
Deptford's Heart (http://dontdumpondeptfordsheart.wordpress.com), who  
conducted their own tests at the same time at another 50 locations.  
The project will give us a much better picture of the current levels  
of nitrogen dioxide pollution in our neighbourhoods - particularly as  
our last experiment was carried out in the summer, and past experience  
shows that pollution is generally higher in the winter. We're waiting  
for the results now, and we'll let you know what we find out.

* We arranged for Dr Ian Mudway of King's College London - you may  
remember hearing him speak at our public meeting last October - to  
extend his survey of the respiratory health of primary school children  
to Fossdene School, Charlton. This is important work that will show  
how children are affected by London's air quality, and no data had  
been collected from south east London before now.

* We also formally constituted our group and elected our committee and  
officers. Our constitution's available to anyone that would like to  
see it - let us know and we'll send it on if you're interested.

* Air quality in our local area has been in  the news quite a bit  
recently. You might have seen some of the coverage:

   - The 50 most polluted roads in the UK (featuring the Blackwall  
Tunnel approach, the tunnel itself and New
Cross Road, amongst others) - http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-02-24/fff/
   - Britain's 10 most congested roads are all in London (including  
the A205 from Catford to the Woolwich Ferry) -  
http://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2014-03-04/britains-ten-most-congested-roads-are-all-in-london/
   - Citizen science projects around the country -  
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/citizen-clean-campaigners-frustrated-with-the-governments-failure-to-cut-the-amount-of-air-pollution-are-uniting-to-tackle-invisible-killer-9158491.html
   - London to become Europe's first zero-emission city (judge for  
yourself on this one!) -  
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/matthew-pencharz-london-may-be-europes-first-zeroemission-city-9143991.html

Transport for London are currently carrying out a survey on air  
quality: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/planning/air-quality-survey   
It closes on 13 April. Please do respond and tell them that you don't  
want a Silvertown tunnel adding to air pollution in our area!

We plan to send out regular updates from now on - if you'd prefer not  
to receive these, let us know by replying to this email to tell us.

Is there something else you'd like to know or would you like to be  
involved in any future volunteer projects that we run? You can drop us  
a line at info at silvertowntunnel.co.uk, or if you're the Twitter type,  
you can find us at @NoSilvertownTnl -  
https://twitter.com/nosilvertowntnl

We will soon be up and running with a Bank account.  If you think you  
would like to contribute to the funding of our campaign, please also  
get in touch at info at silvertowntunnel.co.uk.

Thanks for all your support so far,

from all of us at the No to Silvertown Tunnel Campaign
http://www.silvertowntunnel.co.uk