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Eisteddfod goers likely to have breathed record levels of health-damaging heatwave air

Visitors to last week's Eisteddfod at Meifod in mid Wales are likely to have breathed air which breached official health limits on ozone every day say environmental campaigners. Summertime smog levels [1] broke UK Government health limits at six sites in Wales and 76 out of 80 Government pollution monitoring sites last week, according to analysis released today by Friends of the Earth. In Wales, the six sites which recorded breaches in health limits were:

Aston Hill (Powys, mid Wales near Bishop's Castle): All days (Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun), Cardiff Centre: (Mon, Tues, Fri, Sat, Sun), Cwmbran: All days (Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) Narberth: (Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat), Port Talbot: (Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun), Swansea: (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun).

The smog contains ozone which causes coughing and choking, headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation and chest discomfort on deep breathing. It aggravates asthma symptoms and recent studies in California have suggested that ozone can cause asthma [3]. Government health experts have estimated that ozone pollution causes up to 12,500 premature deaths and up to 9,900 additional hospital admissions for respiratory problems every year [4]. Global climate change is likely to make the problem worse [5].

This year's Eisteddfod site at Meifod was located about twenty miles from the Aston Hill monitoring station near Bishop's Castle. As ozone polluted air recorded at this and at other rural sites is likely to have covered large rural areas, the Meifod area may well have experienced ozone ladened air which breached official health limits.

Friends of the Earth Cymru's transport spokesperson Neil Crumpton said:

"The recent record-breaking sunshine has produced large amounts of damaging smog which has breached health standards in Wales and across the UK. Visitors to the Eisteddfod were likely to have been breathing air which breached official health limits. The site at Meifod is just twenty miles from one of the monitors and ozone pollution blowing from urban areas and major roads spreads out very widely across rural areas. People who tried to escape the heat of the cities for a breath of fresh air may well have been breathing just the opposite. The Government, the Welsh Assembly and Local Authorities must do more to tackle the source of the pollution by cutting the amount of traffic on our roads."

Notes

[1] Ozone pollution, or summertime smog, is formed by the interaction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and hydrocarbons (HCs) in sunlight. This means that levels tend to be highest in summer, when there is more sunshine. The principal source of both nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons is road traffic.

Ozone is not a typical pollutant. Levels tend to be higher in rural areas than in towns and cities, for two reasons: o The chemical processes producing ozone can take many hours. This means that the ozone may be formed some distance downwind of the original NOx and HC sources; o Ozone is also destroyed by other pollutants in vehicle exhausts. In these reactions, the ozone reacts with nitric oxide to produce nitrogen dioxide. This tends to reduce ozone levels in towns and cities where there are large amounts of nitric oxide, also from vehicle exhausts. In rural areas, with lower levels of vehicle exhaust pollution, this 'mopping up' process is slower.

Not all of the ozone found in the UK is the result of emissions in the UK. High ozone levels in southern and eastern areas can be as a result of emissions of NOx and HCs in continental Europe, if the wind is in the right direction.

[2] The Government's 'Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland', published in 2000, set the health standard for ozone at 100 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m3), equivalent to 50 parts per billion (ppb), measured as the daily maximum of running 8-hour means. Friends of the Earth's analysis covered the whole of last week from Monday 4th August to Sunday 10th August.

Smog levels at 25 sites broke health limits every day from Monday 4th to Sunday 10th August. These sites were:

Aston Hill (mid Wales)
Blackpool
Bottesford (Leicestershire)
Bournemouth
Cwmbran (south Wales)
Great Dun Fell (Cumbria)
Harwell (Oxfordshire)
High Muffles (north Yorks)
Leamington Spa
London Brent
London Haringey
London Hillingdon
London Teddington
Lullington Heath (Sussex)
Northampton
Portsmouth
Rochester (Kent)
Sibton (Suffolk)
Somerton (Somerset)
Southend on Sea
St Osyth (Essex)
Thurrock (Essex)
Wicken Fen (Cambs)
Wigan Leigh
Yarner Wood (Devon)

Five sites recorded pollution levels more than double the health standard. These were:

Bournemouth (Sat 9th), Harwell (Sat 9th), Portsmouth (Sat 9th), Wicken Fen (Weds 6th), and Wigan Leigh (Sat 9th). The only sites where pollution levels above health standards were not recorded were Birmingham Centre, Bury Roadside, Edinburgh Centre and London Hackney. The Birmingham site recorded no data last week and Hackney recordings were intermittent, so it is impossible to tell whether levels were exceeded.

[3] The California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board's Children's Health Study compared new asthma cases in 3,535 children who were followed over five years in 12 Southern California communities to determine the potential health damage caused by growing up in polluted air. Six of the communities had higher than average ozone concentrations while six had lower than average concentrations. Researchers further refined the study by looking at children who played up to three team sports. The study showed that children in the high ozone communities who played three or more sports developed asthma at a rate three times higher than those in the low ozone communities. Because participation in some sports can result in a child drawing up to 17 times the "normal" amount of air into the lungs, young athletes are more likely to develop asthma.

[4] Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution 'The quantification of the effects of air pollution on health in the United Kingdom' (Department of Health, 1998)

[5] United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2001) "Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability" p460