- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Dust suppressants offer sticky solution to London pollution
- Date: 1st March 2012
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 17, 2012) (REUTERS) LORRY SPRAYS DUST SUPPRESSANTS (POLLUTION GLUE) ONTO PAVEMENT CLOSE-UP OF LORRY PASSING VARIOUS OF SPRAY ROAD WET FROM SPRAY CARS DRIVING ALONG BUSY LONDON STREET PEDESTRIANS STANDING BY ROAD CROSSING WHILE LOTS OF TRAFFIC GOES BY MORE OF TRAFFIC GARRETT EMMERSON, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AT TRANSPORT FO
- Embargoed: 16th March 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Environment,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA7628F42XMEH54Y7DBKOS05Z9V
- Story Text: Trials of an innovative dust suppressant technology that 'glues' pollution to the road are under way in London to help one of Europe's busiest cities meet legal air quality limits.
London's poor air quality has made it one of the continent's dirtiest cities. It frequently breaches European Union (EU) regulations on the level of pollutant particulates, or PM10, allowed in the air.
With the Olympic Games four months away, a huge influx of visitors and associated traffic is expected, threatening to worsen the city's pollution.
In a bid to reverse the trend Mayor Boris Johnson has invested £200,000 (320,000 US dollars) of the city's money in trials at 15 locations in five London boroughs as part of a national Environment Agency initiative.
The active ingredient in the dust suppressants is calcium magnesium acetate, which glues particles to the road surface to stop them re-circulating in the air.
Calcium magnesium acetate has the effect of attracting fine dust particles in the air and binding them to the road, where they can be picked up by car tyres or washed away by rain.
Once a week, after midnight, the roads are swept and jetwashed by Transport for London (TfL) staff before they spread the suppressants, using a modified winter gritting machine with a fine sprinkler-like system. Once it settles the 'glue' is barely visible.
The aim is to stick PM10s, produced by exhaust fumes, as well as tyre and brake wear, to the road. The tiny sooty particles can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems, lung cancer and premature death.
Garrett Emmerson, chief operating officer at Transport for London, explained how the substance works.
"Essentially it's a hydroscopic action that draws the moisture to the ground and then literally glues the particles that come up from the construction sites or come from diesel engines or even come from the brakes of vehicles braking and so on to the ground, so they can't be blown up again by passing vehicles going past and be recirculated around, and that's of course when they keep getting into people's lungs. So it can deliver some measurable improvements in the quality of air at these key locations," he said.
Emmerson says London's air quality had improved markedly in recent years, but that dust suppression is a vital part of the city's attempts to improve this further.
"The European Union sets quite stringent targets for all cities across Europe to meet in terms of air quality and London's no exception in having to meet those. Overall air quality in London is really quite good and has improved considerably in recent years, but certain locations at certain hotspots we do still have problems. Some of those are on the road network, on the busiest roads in central London and so on, and some of those are around construction sites," he said.
Many of the trial's locations feature industrial operations, such as the Mercury Way industrial site in Lewisham, which is opposite a housing estate. The road between the two is sprayed on a weekly basis, while inside the site itself, engineers from Economic Skips Ltd spray the floor to prevent dust particles rising into the atmosphere.
Seamus Meagher, general manager of Economic Skips Ltd, says the company is happy to take part in the scheme.
"We were approached by the Environment Agency. We conducted this experiment and we were delighted to be a part of that experiment for the local area and the environment," said Meagher. "We put it down every two weeks when the conditions are dry to get the best results......and if it rains we don't."
The trials are not universally popular, with a number of green groups criticising them as an insufficient solution designed to prevent fines of up to £300 million (478 million US dollars) for failing to comply with EU air quality standards.
Alan Andrews, of environmental law group Client Earth, says the scheme is flawed in three ways.
"At Client Earth we're a bit sceptical about the use of dust suppressant. Firstly because they only tackle the problem in a couple of hotspots, whereas we know air pollution is a problem that affects the whole of London. Second, it doesn't affect. It's not as useful in tackling the very fine particles which we know are the most harmful to human health. And finally, even in those hotspots where it's been used it's still not sufficient on its own to achieve compliance with these EU limits," he said.
Andrews says a better response is London's Low Emissions Zone, which requires drivers of high-polluting vehicles such as lorries to pay a daily fee to enter the capital.
It is the first time such a technique has been tried in Britain. TfL says trials carried out in two locations in Central London last year showed dust suppressants could reduce the levels of particulates in their air by 10 percent in severely polluted areas.
The technology is likely to be extended to areas where pollution comes largely from heavy traffic. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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