Nitrogen Dioxide Levels In London

[Barquentine]

Is it true that London has the highest Nitrogen dioxide and particulates levels in the world (or was that just Oxford St?) - and that it has killed 40,000 Londoners in the last year? Diane Abbott has secured a Parliamentary debate about it next week I believe. Does anyone living in London know if the air there is this lethal?

[DTCwordfan]

I quote:

A 2013 study of NO2 levels in Lagos, which is recorded by the WHO as having the worst particulate matter pollution in the world, found that over October and November 2011 Nigeria's capital averaged between 376 μg m3 and 752 μg m3 NO2. This massively exceeds Oxford Street’s annual mean of 135 μg m3.

While this study cannot be directly compared, it perhaps highlights the point that other cities in the world are struggling with NO2 and are perhaps even worse off than London.

I asked David Carslaw about the study. He agreed NO2 levels in Lagos could well be worse than Oxford St, although he expressed skepticism about the extremely high numbers in this study. He said it would need to be expanded and employ higher quality measuring equipment to provide adequate data from which to draw conclusions.

He said that when he compared Oxford Street to other city streets was an attempt to put London's NO2 problem in context.

"I believe that if it isn't [the worst in the world] it will be very, very close. I might be quite telling that you have to go somewhere like Lagos to find somewhere worse. It's certainly the worst in Europe. I don't think that puts London in a very good light."

That last sentence is perhaps makes the point.

[atalanta]

Try Shanghai.

[Baldric]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/10/london-worst-no2-pollution-earth

[DTCwordfan]

Shanghai isn't too bad, they have coastal winds coming through to clean the place out, Beijing in winter is far worse. Not only the traffic but also the coal dust. Put your finger over the tv weekly and a black film comes off (not grey). Lived there......

[atalanta]

When I was in Shanghai it powerfully reminded me of the London smogs of the 1950s. At least London got cleaned up since then. Shanghai seems to be getting worse.

[DTCwordfan]

that's true - they don't use urea - traps yet on diesel vehicles, actually there are better technologies out there for NOx breakup - through additives in the lubs that catalyze the reaction. Part of the problem in Shanghai though is coal - 70 per cent of Chinese coal is unscrubbed.

[Peter Pedant]

short answer is 'no'

Peking is worse and a few others have been named

and here is on I picked out of a hat
http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/city_result.jsp?country=India&city=Jaipur

well ! isnt David Carslaw naughty !
Here he is saying it IS the highest.... I think

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/news.asp?NewsId=OxfordStHighNO2

here is his piece
"The original presentation is available here LAQN website given by David Carslaw. In that presentation David Carslaw raised the possibility that measurements of NO2 concentration recorded at the Oxford Street roadside air pollution monitoring site were to his knowledge the highest in the world."

I have to say I am shocked ....