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Painting the town green
A LEADING arts college plans to pilot a pollution-absorbing paint on its buildings to improve air quality.
The Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design in Bloomsbury plans to coat its garages in the special ‘D-Nox’ paint that removes deadly fumes from the air.
The luminous paint uses layers to coat buildings with titanium dioxide that react with pollutants, breaking them down and making them harmless.
If successful the paint, already used on paving stones in Southampton Row, could be used on hundreds of buildings across the city.
The project is backed by businesses in Holborn and Simon Hughes, project manager at The Holborn Partnership that is organising the pilot, said: “It will lead to improved air quality for workers and residents. Pollution is an issue that affects us all, and any measures to combat its effects and make Holborn a better place to work and live are to be welcomed.”
The paint was created by Lincolnshire-based firm Millennium Chemical, the world's largest merchant seller of titanium dioxide, has been tested on paving stones in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury.
The paint absorbs nitrogens, known collectively as Nox, that are responsible for half the emissions in Europe’s.
The paint was developed in Japan and used in Milan and Paris where it was found to have cut emissions by 60 per cent.
Pollution experts from Imperial College will monitor the pilot.
Margarita Moscoso of Central Saint Martins and representative of The Holborn Partnership said: “I hope the outcome will help develop a more sustainable environment in which to work and live.” |
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