Three million children going to schools in areas with toxic air

Children in London are four times more likely to go to school in areas with high levels pollution levels that exceed WHO limits than children in the rest of England.

New City Hall analysis has found 3.1 million English children are attending schools in areas exceeding WHO limits for PM2.5, which can stunt the growth of children’s lungs and worsens chronic illnesses, such as asthma, lung and heart disease.

The data also shows that, before the pandemic, more than 1.2 million children in London attended schools in areas that exceeded WHO limits for PM2.5 – more than 700,000 of them are of primary school age. A worrying 98 per cent of state primary and secondary schools in London were in areas that exceeded WHO limits, compared with 24 per cent outside of London.

Of the 30 local authorities with the highest PM2.5 at schools, all but two were London boroughs.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “For too long it has been accepted that children growing up in London will breathe more polluted air than their friends and family outside this great city. But I don’t accept this. I’m doing everything in my power to stop young Londoners breathing air so filthy that it damages their lungs and causes thousands of premature deaths every year. This is why I’m expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone later this year.

“I want to make sure all of London meets the World Health Organization limits for particulate matter. But I can’t do it alone and I want to work with government to achieve this goal. That’s why I’m asking for the new Environment Bill to include legally binding WHO recommended limits to be achieved by 2030. We can’t sleep walk from the health crisis of Covid back into complacency over the major impact of toxic air on everyone’s health.”