Less than a week ago Mayor Sadiq Khan declared that the state of London’s air was a “public health emergency”. Today, the true extent of this has been revealed as a ‘black’ alert has now been issued, the most severe alert possible.
The recent high readings have been so bad they’ve even resulted in children’s playground time being reduced due to the toxic air being a danger to the children’s health. These severe readings were taken across central and West London in Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond, Ealing, Lambeth, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets among others.
The toxicity supposedly comes from a combination of our own local pollution which is mainly a bi-product of diesel engines and pollution that has blown over from Germany.
Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth member Sophie Neuburg said: “It’s a scandal that millions of people, in one of the richest cities in the world, are regularly forced to breath toxic air.
“The mayor is right to alert people to the threat this pollution poses to their health, and has already taken some steps to tackle the issue, but far more needs to be done. Sadiq Khan must follow the lead of Paris, Athens and Madrid and commit to banning dirty diesel from London by 2025”.