CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Working draft 12 December 2011

Take 10 steps for Clean Air in London

Clean Air in London aims to build public understanding of poor air quality but does not provide advice

Please consider taking all or any of the following 10 steps to help Clean Air in London:

1. Investigate: find out about air pollution near your home, work or places you visit

• Check out the excellent London Air Quality Network (LAQN) for information and monitoring data
• See what the Government has to say about local air quality
• Read Clean Air in London’s four page ‘Introduction to poor air quality in London’
• Read media articles mentioning or involving Clean Air in London
• Check out the Mayor’s estimate of air pollution levels in your ward in 2008 and the number of premature deaths attributable to it. Check out Clean Air in London’s estimates of the number of premature deaths in each London borough based on the Mayor’s health study
• Find out if you are near one of London’s busiest roads or if a school you know is near one of them

2. Adapt: protect yourself from the dangers of air pollution

• Walk down less polluted side streets, if you can
• Cycle down less polluted side streets, if you can
• Sign up for pollution alerts and/or information via the LAQN’s iPhone app or CERC’s airTEXT

3. Mitigate: reduce air pollution for yourself and others

• If you can: walk, cycle or take public transport rather than driving (try to avoid driving older diesel vehicles)
• See Clean Air in London’s recommended 65 measures to improve air quality and check out the London Assembly Environment Committee’s report on air quality
• When buying a new car for the city, choose a less polluting one if you can. Check out Volvo’s Emissions Equality website
• Find out about low emission zones in London and other cities around Europe which are used to reduce harmful emissions from road transport

4. Research: find out more about air pollution

• Find out more about air quality by searching Clean Air in London’s website
• Find out what your local authority has to offer:
(i) has it declared an Air Quality Management Area for some or all the borough (and if not why?);
(ii) ask for a copy of its latest Air Quality Plan and any advice it provides local people on air quality.
• Have a look at the Mayor of London’s Air Quality Strategy but bear in mind it is not ‘fit for purpose’
• See what the European Commission has to say on air quality and find out what it can do to help you
• For scientific advice, check out the Committee of the Medical Effects of Air Pollution’s (COMEAP’s) website and/or advice from the World Health Organisation
• Submit one good information request a week to find out something new about air quality using Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation powers e.g. to your local authority, Transport for London, the Mayor of London, Defra or the Department for Transport. Emphasise your enquiry relates to ‘emissions to the air’. Use WhatDoTheyKnow.com or the template attached to this list

5. Lobby: for full compliance with air quality laws

• Email or write to the Prime Minister asking him to chair a monthly steering committee which will ensure full compliance with air quality laws throughout London (and the rest of the UK)
• Email: The Rt. Hon. Caroline Spelman MP at Defra (who is responsible for the UK’s compliance with air quality laws); the Mayor (at mayor@london.gov.uk); and/or your local authority and tell them: (i) why you are worried about poor air quality; (ii) ask what they will do to address your specific concerns; (iii) and ask how and when air quality laws will be complied with in full where you live, work and/or visit
• Ask your MP for help and monitor what he/she is doing to improve local air quality via TheyWorkForYou.com

6. Arrange a group meeting: and invite Clean Air in London to speak

• Invite Clean Air in London via its website or Direct Message via Twitter to speak at an event you will organise. It should be a club, community group or society meeting or at work and should involve between 20 and 200 people.
• Contact Mapping for Change and ask them to help you map air pollution in your local streets. You may need to raise a small sum of money to pay for nitrogen dioxide diffusion tubes or other costs

7. Support Clean Air in London

• Sign Clean Air in London's petition calling on the Mayor to keep transparently his promise to improve air quality in the area formerly covered by the western extension of the congestion charging zone (WEZ)
• Follow Clean Air in London on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CleanAirLondon and share its Tweets
• Read ‘About Clean Air in London’ and please make a donation using the Donate button at the top right of Clean Air in London’s homepage

8. Spread the word:

• Share your understanding of poor air quality with family, friends and colleagues. Suggest they read this list
• Comment about air quality on media websites, Facebook, Twitter or on other social media
• Get involved with a political group, local community group or charity such as the Campaign for Better Transport, ClientEarth, Environmental Protection UK, Friends of the Earth or the London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies

9. Fight: oppose local developments (e.g. supermarkets) if they will result in breaches of air quality laws

• See Clean Air in London’s research on legal protections but remember it does not provide advice

10. Feedback any better ideas to Clean Air in London

• Tell Clean Air in London via its website or Twitter if you have any better ideas to achieve urgently and sustainably full compliance with World Health Organisation recommended standards of air quality throughout London