Campaigners put health warnings on Bromsgrove's petrol pumps as part of campaign to cut pollution - The Bromsgrove Standard

Campaigners put health warnings on Bromsgrove's petrol pumps as part of campaign to cut pollution

Bromsgrove Editorial 3rd Sep, 2020   0

CLIMATE change campaigners are calling for action to be taken on pollution levels in Bromsgrove which they say are spiralling out of control.

Statistics released by Friends of the Earth show the district is the 25th highest in the country for car ownership out of 300 towns.

The area has one of the highest air pollution levels in the Midlands – 43.98micrograms per cubic metre, recorded by Bromsgrove District Council in 2018 on Worcester Road by the Black Cross pub.

The Annual Air Quality Objective is set at 40micrograms per cubic metre, meaning nitrogen dioxide are being breached in Bromsgrove.




This week the town’s XR group posted health warnings on 44 pumps at six petrol stations across the district as part of a campaign led by Doctors For Extinction Rebellion.

It calls for greater transparency on the dangers to human health caused by fossil fuels.


Some of the labels were similar to those on cigarette packets featuring graphic images while others depicted a version of the Government’s ‘Stay Alert’ Coronavirus banners.

Friends of the Earth said air pollution had killed approximately 40,000 people per year in recent years, putting the issue on a par with Covid-19 levels.

A spokesperson for Bromsgrove Extinction Rebellion said: “The British public listened to the scientists on Covid-19 so we should listen to the scientists on air pollution. Sweden and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have introduced such ‘eco-labels’ already.

“As the UK is hosting COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 now is a good time to introduce them here.”

The data compiled by Friends of the Earth has been accessed from the most recent local authority Air Quality Annual Status Reports (ASRs) submitted to the Government in 2018. The group stated the results were all bias corrected and distance-adjusted where appropriate and some were provisional and awaiting DEFRA approval.

 

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