‘Traffic reduction measures should be put in place on roads around hospitals to minimise pollution’

Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation recently published a report entitled The Invisible Threat: how we can protect people from air pollution and create a fairer, healthier society.

As well as reminding the reader of the dangers to health from poor air quality, the report includes new analysis showing those who are most susceptible are being exposed in the places they should feel safe.

In England, 29 per cent of hospitals are in areas where the level of pollution is known to put vulnerable groups, and healthcare professionals, at risk.

The report calls for urgent action to reduce air pollution exposure “at the hospital door” and argues that traffic reduction measures should be put in place on roads around hospitals to minimise traffic-related pollution.

It is difficult to read the report without thinking of the situation in central Bristol, where the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) and Bristol’s Hospital for Children stand within one of the most stubbornly polluted parts of the city.

As part of a University of Bristol research study considering the implications of a clean air zone for Bristol, an online survey gathered the views and experiences of people travelling in the Marlborough Street and Upper Maudlin Street corridor.

Bristol Children’s Hospital on Upper Maudlin Street. Photo: Martin Booth

Comments made by those who completed the survey clearly illustrate some of the issues Bristol’s air quality team have been trying to address.

The area was described as “rammed with petrol and diesel vehicles churning out exhaust fumes and shedding tyre and brake particles, idling either in traffic jams or waiting outside the BRI, and the road is surrounded by high buildings”.

Consequently, respondents indicated “the poor air quality affects my breathing when walking in the area” and “I’m having to take more and more asthma meds every year – I hate that the air is so bad, and I wish they would sort it out quickly”.

There was some dismay that “our main hospital and especially the children’s hospital should be subjected to so much air pollution” and sympathy was expressed “for anyone having to stay or work in the BRI”.

Pedestrians, including disabled pedestrians, trying to access the hospitals described being “stuck on the island in the middle of the road for some time breathing in exhaust fumes”.

Non-compliant vehicles will be charged to enter the CAZ from the end of October. Image: Clean Air for Bristol

One parent explained: “My daughter suffers from severe asthma and has often had overnight stays in the BRI due to this. I feel extremely conscious that, in order to be treated for this life-threatening illness, she has to travel through one of the most polluted parts of the city – as do all the other children and young people being treated there.”

Experimental measures, implemented by Bristol City Council during the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, aimed to clean up Bristol’s air by reducing road space for motor vehicles and providing support for walking and cycling.

But the council’s modelling suggests these measures failed to improve air quality in Upper Maudlin Street and Marlborough Street and a charging clean air zone is now proposed.

The scheme would charge non-compliant private cars, buses, coaches, taxis, HGVs and LGVs driving in the area.

But comments from our survey participants also illustrate some of the difficulties of implementing a charging clean air zone around the city’s major hospitals when “people with some health conditions require access by car as they are not able to walk or get public transport”.

Many people would sympathise with the parent who wrote: “I’ve had to take my kids to the Children’s Hospital on multiple occasions and taking a distressed child on a 40+ minute bus journey to the hospital doesn’t bear thinking about – withholding access to healthcare services from people because they drive the wrong car is not acceptable.”

Questions have been raised around the effects the CAZ will have on the hospitals. Photo: Martin Booth

There were also concerns for hospital staff who “might be on shifts where no public transport is available to get them to or from work” and who “face waiting up to an hour for a bus”.

In acknowledging such issues, the current proposals for Bristol’s clean air zone include 1-year exemptions for visitors to specified hospitals, blue badge holders, people attending hospital appointments, registered community transport vehicles and low-income earners travelling into or out of the zone for work purposes.

The Invisible Threat report called for urgent action to reduce air pollution exposure at the hospital door: there will be much to learn from the difficult process of trying to achieve this in central Bristol.

Suzanne Audrey is a senior research fellow in Public Health at the University of Bristol, working with Nikolai Bode and Daniel Schien at the Faculty of Engineering on a study examining air quality and sustainable transport movements in the area around Marlborough Street and Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more: Details of Bristol’s clean air zone finally confirmed