Evidence perhaps that efforts to rid our environment of air pollutants have not yet reached adequate levels to reduce children’s exposure to air pollution.
Campaign group Mums for Lungs had to resort to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to reveal the numbers for individual hospitals in south east London with 115,000 children and young people across London attending A&E or were admitted to hospital with respiratory issues in 2025.
This volume of local admissions should raise questions about what further steps need to be taken in the short term to improve air quality.
"Many sources of air pollution are unnecessary and preventable. It is so important to raise public awareness of sources such as wood burning and idling so that local air quality improves.
The air we breathe is a shared resource that we need to take care of."
https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/26671582.south-east-london-parents-campaign-air-pollution-outside-hospitals/
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Some salient points from the article:
“Lewisham council recycles 27% of household waste and incinerates the remaining 73% at South East London Combined Heat and Power (SELCHP) at Landmann Way in Deptford.”
"Greenwich has a recycling rate of 33%, its waste trucks bring the remaining 67% of rubbish to SELCHP for incineration. Southwark has a recycling rate of 34% and brings the remaining 66% to the Deptford plant.
Other councils in London and across the country transport their rubbish across London to feed SELCHP, which is the 8th largest incinerator in the UK."
“SELCHP emits a continuous stream of air pollution and 345,284 tonnes of CO2 every year. By comparison, Lewisham council emits 12,745 tonnes of CO2 across its entire corporate estate, including council buildings, schools, leisure centres and fleet.”
There is an absence of narrative about what air-scrubbing (CO2 capture) or filtration equipment is in place at SELCHP.
Is there any of that type of provision?
How does its performance compare with modern standards?
If it does exist how is it measured, by whom and how effective is it?
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Lots of questions aren’t there? I sometimes wonder if indoor air pollution is under-researched e.g. in households where windows are kept closed (to keep out noise and retain heat) and strong cleaning chemicals are combined with air-fresheners?
Regarding pollution from road transport, it disappoints me that there’s so little interest from London’s political leaders in tunnelling more of the major routes like the North/South Circular. Mayor Khan has been given approval by central govt to borrow up to £10 billion for infrastructure but apparently no road schemes are being considered.
In Lewisham we have loads of extra diesel-powered trucks coming into the Borough to dump their waste at SELCHP, bringing additional noise/vibration, and particulates.
More locally, there’s no sign that air monitoring is happening anywhere near the obvious pollution hotspots e.g. the A205 pedestrian crossing next to Forest Hill station.
On the local monitoring point - it is unclear sometimes where and if active monitoring is taking place.
We had one at Bell Green near Haseltine School (not sure it is still present). Its positioning had been subject to criticism from some quarters based on the fact it was adjacent to traffic lights there, with a direct consequence that it measured significant numbers of vehicles paused at the lights with engines idling which allegedly drove up the pollutant numbers.
For quite sometime that spot had the highest recorded pollution numbers in Lewisham if not all of SE London.
Monitoring is essential - but it seems too complex for some to be as effective as we need it to be.