‘How Bristol’s filthy air damaged my health’

If it was reported on Points West that more than 300 people every single year were dying in Bristol from – say – food poisoning, it would be a major outrage and it would pretty soon be dealt with.

In fact, there are indeed more than 300 unnecessary deaths every single year – many of them vulnerable children and older citizens) – but they come from a less visible cause, air pollution, much of which is caused by traffic.

We can’t see it, smell it or taste it but it still causes cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease (as well as many other illnesses including changes linked to dementia).  

The damage occurs throughout life; from our time in the womb to our old age. But the young and old are especially vulnerable. It also impacts more on the most deprived communities in central areas of Bristol, so this is a social justice issue as well as a public health one.

I have a particular interest in this issue as when I was young I was badly affected by asthma. In those days (back in the 1960s) Bristol was already notorious for asthma in children because of excessive pollution and the topography of the city.

The solution often adopted was to send the poor child away from their friends and family out of Bristol to a state-run boarding school for sick kids in the cleaner air of Devon.

That was what happened to me when I was about eight years old, and frankly it was a real struggle to leave home at that age. Luckily, I recovered from the illness fairly quickly (albeit with permanently damaged lungs) and after a year was able to come home to my family. Many children I knew were not so lucky and continue to suffer now.

Why does the problem continue to exist in modern day Bristol despite smokeless zones and other measures? The majority of the problems are caused by vehicles; especially diesel cars, vans and busses.

They produce large amounts of particulates and nitrous oxides which directly lead to many of us having health problems. I know we were all told a few years ago that, because they produce less CO2, diesel cars were the “green option”, but unfortunately we now know that they put other horrible substances directly into our lungs. The particularly dangerous ones are so small that they evade the filter of the hair in our noses.

The result of all this is that on numerous occasions each year the air quality in Bristol is so bad that it exceeds World Health Organisation and European advisory and legal limits. That’s right: Bristol’s air quality is often illegal.

What can we do to stop this happening? London has a Low Emission Zone to reduce the impact of diesel powered commercial vehicles, and five other cities have been promised Clean Air Zones but not Bristol – apparently our problem is not seen as serious enough.

Really? 300 unnecessary deaths a year sounds pretty serious to me. A recent article in The Times suggests that the real reason for Bristol not being included in the list with Birmingham, Leeds, Southampton, Nottingham and Derby was that “economic factors” said to be linked to reducing car use were considered more important than health ones.

Firstly, I don’t agree that there would be such a negative impact on the local economy; new companies move to Bristol all the time because of it’s “livability” and clean air is part of that. Secondly, this is a cynical and wrong way to make such a decision.  

The Green Party in Bristol (of which I am a member) has long campaigned for a Clean Air Zone in central Bristol to reduce the level of pollutants to safe and legal levels and we have a plan that we think could make a real difference. 

The most obvious action is to restrict the most polluting vehicles from entering Bristol. We urgently need to develop credible proposals to have Bristol as one of the English cities adopting clean air zones by 2020. They should include:

– Clean up the city’s taxis. Taxis licensed by Bristol City Council are among the city’s dirtiest diesel vehicles and we need to support them to change this

– Clean up the bus fleet. Although some progress has been made by First on this with low emission buses, we need bus operators to clean up their vehicle fleets

– Promote and develop the infrastructure for electric vehicle and car clubs

Finally, we must not forget to support the promotion of walking and cycling to improve the city’s air quality, improve people’s health and make Bristol even more of a fun place to live.

I know that there will inevitably be some extra costs and inconvenience to some people in the city from our proposals but this has to be balanced against the life-changing illnesses that highly polluting vehicles are causing. To me it seems obvious where the balance lies in this debate and I would ask Marvin to introduce a Clean Air Zone as soon as possible.

Stephen Clarke is Green Party councillor for Southville. Sign the petition here.