More than half of Islington’s 45 primary schools (23) are within 150m (492ft) of roads arrying more than 10,000 vehicles a day, putting pupils health at risk.
Figures obtained by the Clean Air London (CAL) campaign, through a freedom of information request to Transport for London, show 36 primaries and 6 secondaries are within 400m (1312ft) of such roads.
Exposure at such levels could lead to 15% to 30% of new cases of asthma in children.
According to CAL a newly published air pollution research project: Aphekom has found people living near roads travelled by 10,000 vehicles or more per day were vulnerable to heart disease and the pollution could be responsible for 15% – 30% of all new cases of asthma in children.
The Aphekon project involved 60 scientists studying effects of air pollution on health in 25 cities in 12 European countries.
Simon Birkett, director of CAL said: "The government and Mayor Johnson must tackle an invisible public health crisis harming as many people now as we thought during the Great Smog in December 1952"
London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said "The mayor shouldwork with local authorities to create a system which immediately notifies these schools of high pollution episodes, so that parents and teachers are made aware of potential health problems when pollution is at its worst."
Caroline Russell of Islington Green Party said "Many Islington residents suffer from lung and cardio vascular disease. Now that we know the ill-effects of traffic related pollution are so severe, we should all take action to minimise the negative impacts in both adults and children whose developing lungs are particularly vulnerable. This needs creative collaboration between health and transport authorities, action from
the mayor, the council and from residents who need advice about how best to protect heir health."
“Local councils have direct control of some transport issues, such as roads, development control, parking policy, etc, as well as responsibility for many different ctivities – education, health, housing management, parks, and so on – which all contribute their share to the cocktail of urban transport emissions. Councils are well placed to influence behaviour outside their direct areas of responsibility. We call on Islington council to review all of its activities from the perspective of this urgent need to reduce transport emissions, improve air quality, and tackle this threat to our children’s health.”
