Analysing Air Pollution Exposure in London

Updated in Februrary 2017.

Air quality in London has improved in recent years as a result of policies to reduce emissions, primarily from road transport. However, recently updated maps of pollution concentrations for 2013 (LAEI 2013) still show significant areas of exceedances of the annual mean NO2 EU Limit Values. Improvements are planned to address these, as recently announced in the Mayor’s package of air quality measures.

1. The Updated Analysis of Air Pollution Exposure in London research provides an update to similar analysis undertaken in 2013 (which looked at pollution exposure in 2010), published recently by City Hall. It examines pollution exposure in London in 2013 and considers how exposure varies by indicators of age, relative deprivation and ethnic groups in London. It also looks at total exposure (broken down by borough) and exposure at schools.
   
   Through the research described in this report, City Hall is seeking to understand the inequalities in accessing clean air in London and considering how this will be improved by planned air pollution policies.
   
   
2. The spreadsheet lists the schools located in areas where average concentrations of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) are over the legal and safe limit as defined by the EU Limit Values; the Limit Value is 40 μg/m3. The modelled NO2 data used in this report is from the 2013 London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI), and the list of schools used is from Edubase public portal from the Department of Education.
   
   The list is shown by borough and in descending order with the most polluted first. Further analysis of this data and other indications of the links between air pollution and social gradient in London can be found in the Updated Analysis of Air Pollution Exposure in London.