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Camden New Journal - By TOM FOOT
Published: 27 December 2007

Fresh start for school?

A NEW secondary school could need air-pollution defences built in because of its planned location in a hotspot for fumes.
The New Journal can disclose that the Town Hall has included air quality checks as part of the design process for the planned city academy intended for Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage.
An air quality survey of Camden produced for the council this summer revealed that Swiss Cottage, Bloomsbury and Shaftesbury Avenue have high levels of nitrogen dioxide, a car exhaust gas associated with respiratory diseases.
The council’s own air quality website explains the risk of nitrogen oxide: “Young children and the elderly are more likely to be affected by this pollutant, as are people who suffer from asthma.
Studies have shown that high levels of
nitrogen dioxide indoors can cause lung problems and headaches.”
Camden failed government targets on nitrogen dioxide emissions in 2007 and is designated an Air Quality Management Area – in common with the majority of London boroughs.
A council press official said that the pollution data for Swiss Cottage were collected at Finchley Road, which is administered by Transport for London, and has therefore not fallen under council schemes which have “reduced traffic levels in the borough by 16 per cent between 1996 and 2006”.
He said: “The site for the new school on Adelaide Road will have
significantly better air quality than the Finchley Road monitoring station, due to its distance from the road. As part of the planning process for the new school we will be carrying out a range of environmental checks.”

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