AQMRC welcomes the publication of 'Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution' by the RCP and the RCPCH

The AQMRC welcomes this report into the lifelong impact of air pollution by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. This is yet another publication that reinforces the fact that air pollution contributes significantly to poor health outcomes locally, nationally and internationally.

 

We are pleased to see that the working group have gone beyond the three principal tenets of reducing the long term health effects of air pollution that we set out in our consultation response.   The report emphasises the importance of embracing  a number technological, behavioural and statutory means to achieve better health outcomes for both individuals and society as a whole.

 

The RCP and RCPCH report can be found here: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

 

 

 

Jo presentated at Westminster Briefing event on Tuesday

On Tuesday 16th February, Jo gave a presentation on 'Local and National Action - Next Steps' at the Westminster Briefing 'Air Quality Management Under the New Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The presentation covered the latest LAQM and Action Plan consultations from Defra and speculated on the effects that recent legislative actions may have on air quality management in the near future. The presentation can be accessed here: https://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/secure/28240/








 

Jo invited to speak at Westminster Briefing Air Quality event

Jo Barnes has been invited to speak at the Westminster Briefing event 'Air Quality Management Under the New Local Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The event is to be held in Victoria, London on Tuesday 16th February. There are still places available though, so to book yours, please register online at: http://www.westminster-briefing.com/home/event-detail/newsarticle/air-quality-management-under-the-new-government/

Bristol Method - UWE's transport module most popular

The Bristol Method: Transport modules, which AQMRC, UWE helped write and coordinate, have just been announced as the most popular. The Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a sustainable city.In a summary of the web stats:

• 25 modules have now been published on line. A further seven are due to be published before end of Feb taking the final total to 32.
• The Method has been accessed by people in 56 different countries including 20 unique users in Japan and four in Nigeria.
• As expected, the bulk of the audience to date has been from the UK and western Europe, particularly Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Around 2% of traffic has come from the USA.
• In total, 2,400 unique users have visited 3,300 pages.

AQMRC's Jo Barnes helped to write and coordinate the module 'How to reduce traffic and its impacts' in conjunction with Bristol City Council and with additional contributions from the Centre for Transport and Society at UWE.

Financial Implications of Car Ownership - a social and spatial analysis

On 6th January, Tim presented work from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) at the 48th Annual Universities' Transport Study Group conference in Bristol.

Tim gives presentation at CTS Winter Conference

On 14th December, Tim gave a presentation at the annual UWE Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference. The presentation was on 'Financial Implications of Car Ownership' was based on analyses undertaken in the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK' project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject).

AQMRC signatories to 'The Truth about Diesel Cars' open letter

An open letter to European public and policy makers was published by the IAQM today (11/12/2015). The letter, from a group of concerned air quality practitioners and researchers, believe that the public should be made aware of the true nature of the pollution from diesel cars. Both Jim and Enda are signatories to this important document.

 

The letter itself can be found here: http://iaqm.co.uk/text/letters/Truth%20about%20Diesel%20Cars_11Dec15.pdf

 

 

Jim and Ben contribute to the Bristol Earth Champions short film

Jim and Ben were filmed as part of a Bristol Earth Champions film, due to be shown at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 climate meeting in Paris this week. They represented UWE’s contribution to addressing the challenge of air pollution within Bristol and beyond.  Other contributors to the film,  organised by the international environmental charity Earth Champions, included local Bristol organisations Modcell and Lifecycle.

 

The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-wFhHb-Zg&feature=youtu.be

 

Air pollution on topic at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

Ben contributed to the annual Geography A-level Conference at the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution on Thursday 19^th November. Students from schools across North Somerset were taken on an ‘air pollution journey’ from Roman times through to the modern era and into the future. Questions from the students were wide and varied and a good discussion was had around current topical issues, including real-world driving emissions and Bath’s Air Quality Management Area.

 

The AQMRC contribute to Gatwick Airport Ltd's Air Quality Plan consultation response

The AQMRC were commissioned by Gatwick Airport Ltd to review the robustness of emission factors used as the basis for modelling within Defra’s proposed Air Quality Plan. Gatwick’s consultation response and our contribution to it, can be found here: http://gatwickairport.com/globalassets/publicationfiles/business_and_community/all_public_publications/second_runway/airports_commission/final_submitted_response_to_draft_air_quality_plan_3nov15.pdf

 

 

 

Routes to Clean Air conference success

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre was out in force at the recent Institute of Air Quality Management’s Routes to Clean Air conference, on the 22^nd and 23^rd of October. The event, co-organised by the AQMRC, the IAQM and Bristol City Council attracted over a hundred delegates keen to discuss issues surrounding vehicle emissions, mitigation measures and the future of air quality within the UK. Jim struck a chord with many delegates during his talk on ‘air quality in historical perspective – or why we fail to learn the lessons of history’. The conference also heard talks from Dr Eckard Helmers of the University of Applied Sciences, Trier on how diesel vehicle emissions may not actually reduce our CO₂ contribution compared to petrol vehicle emissions and Dr James Tate of the University of Leeds on how real-world emissions from vehicles are often different to those of type-approval testing.

 

All in all, the conference was deemed to be a great success with national media outlets running stories derived from a number of the speakers.  Jim’s presentation, along with others from the conference can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LyJ24uSbWc

 

 

Tim presenting at MODEshift Convention

Tim will be presenting the 'fleximobility' work (http://www.fleximobility.solutions) from the Disruption project today at the annual MODEshift Convention in Birmingham (http://www.modeshift.org.uk/convention).

MODEshift are the UK's leading sustainable travel organisation.

AQMRC responds to the NICE consultation on outdoor air quality and health

The AQMRC recently responded to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence’s call for comments on the development of reducing the ill-effects of outdoor air quality on health. The guideline scope, can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-final-scope2 and our comments and NICE responses to each comment can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-draft-scope-stakeholder-comments-and-responses-table2

 

 

AQMRC delighted to support Bristol City Council's bid for an Ultra Low Emissions Scheme

The AQMRC are delighted to support Bristol City Council’s bid for an Ultra Low Emissions Scheme for Bristol. We look forward to the opportunity for collaboration on such an important scheme.

 

Bristol Bright Night Success!

The AQMRC were very active at the Bristol Bright Night event at @Bristol on Friday. Both Jo and Ben spent the morning explaining air pollution, challenges and solutions to schoolchildren by showing them an enormous laminated map of Bristol City and its air quality management area (which was frequently sat upon and crawled across in the search for homes and schools, by all!) The evening was also exciting, with both Jim and Tim presenting during the Green Hour talks whilst Jo and Ben continued to discuss air pollution issues with those attending (with help from the giant laminated map of course!). A big thank you should also be given to Enda for playing a key role in the event’s organisation and ultimately, it’s success!

 

 

Dr Jo Barnes responds to VW emissions scandal

Jo has been engaged widely with both radio stations and the print media in discussing the recent Volkswagen scandal. A list of her media engagements are shown here:

 

·         Live studio interview with BBC Five Live Drive (22 Sept 2015)

·         Quoted in the Daily Telegraph (23 Sept 2015) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11883416/vw-scandal-emission-target-death-rate.html

·         Live telephone interview with BBC Radio Tees (23 Sept 2015)

• Live telephone interview with BBC Radio Bristol (29 Sept 2015)

·         Live telephone interview with BBC Scotland (w/e 25 Sept 2015)

 

 

 

Tim presenting at ESRC Behaviour Change Seminar Series

On Monday 21^st September, Tim will be giving a talk about his work on ‘behaviour’ at the Watershed in Bristol as part of the ESRC Behaviour Change Seminar Series http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/bl/research/bsmc/esrcseminarseries.aspx

 

The series is organised by Bristol Social Marketing Centre at UWE, in conjunction with partners from Capita, City University London, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), On Target Consulting, University College London, University of Bath, University of Exeter, and the University of Manchester.

 

Presentation for Transport Planning Society in Birmingham

Tim will be leading a workshop for the Transport Planning Society in Birmingham on Thursday 30^th July on Flexi-mobility – Re-thinking Everyday Travel Patterns.

 

The work stems from the EPSRC/Energy Programme funded Disruption project.

http://www.tps.org.uk/westmidlands/events/id/0808/

 

 

 

 

Tim at 14th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research

This week Tim will be representing the Disruption project, the MOT project and the EPSRC Travel Behaviours Network at the 14th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research in Windsor (19th-23rd July).

He will be giving a presentation on 'New geographies of motoring: Variations in car type, size, usage, emissions and energy use in the UK' 

http://www.iatbr2015.org.uk/index.php/iatbr/iatbr2015/paper/view/516

UWE represented at National Air Quality Symposium, Beijing

Professor Martin Bigg and a small team of academics and environmental leaders were invited by the Consultative Committee to the State Council, China, to advise on air quality matters, and the drafting of Chinese air quality legislation.

 

During the visit (22^nd – 27^th June), Professor Bigg presented at the National Air Quality Symposium in Beijing and subsequently visited Shandong Province, Jining and Taian, where he met with national and regional leaders. During the visit, air quality management expertise developed in the UK, particularly in reference to the challenges within cities, was discussed. The recent developments and plans for the City of Bristol and the roles of both Universities and regulators in understanding and addressing air quality challenges was also highlighted.

 

There was a great deal of interest from the Chinese delegates in the UK’s experience and expertise on air quality questions, and a desire to explore further how this might be made available to them. To this end, we look forward to hearing from our colleagues in the Chinese air quality soon!