News on Somers Town - Future Neighbourhoods 2030

Last Friday (22 April) as we celebrated Earth Day , Slaney Devlin, from Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum, shared an update on air quality monitoring in Somers Town. Air Quality is a key component of the Somers Town Future Neighbourhood 2030 initiative, follow the link to learn more: Air quality monitoring, public health and community engagement . Here is her update:

‘An additional 20 new diffusion tube sites have been added to the air quality monitoring network as part of the Future Neighbourhoods 2030 programme. The diffusion tubes measure nitrogen dioxide, an invisible gas that is produced by burning fossil fuels and other materials, for example in vehicle engines and gas boilers. Small test tubes have been sited around Somers Town, typically mounted on lampposts, at locations seen on this map . They are collected every four weeks and sent to a lab for analysis. The results (once they start coming in) will be uploaded onto the Somers Town Future Neighbourhoods website and will help to inform long-term air quality trends in the area.

The Coopers Lane air quality monitoring station is also up and running, measuring particulate matter – large (PM10) and small (PM2.5) airborne particles that are increasingly being shown to be dangerous to our health. You can create a graph of pollutant levels over the past seven days at Coopers Lane on the Air Quality in England website .

There is a Breathe London air quality node in Ampthill Estate , showing real time PM2.5 and NO2 levels. The data isn't accurate enough to appear in official monitoring reports, but is a useful tool if you are worried about pollution levels on a particular day or if there is a lot of construction dust about, for example.

And finally, I've spotted an AirLabs sensor near the bottom of Ossulston Street. This device measures a wide range of air pollutants including airborne particulate matter and toxic gases (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3)), as well as temperature and humidity, giving the full picture of air quality in an area. I've yet to find out if this is the only sensor in Somers Town or if there are others, or to find out if the data is publicly available.

When combined with all the HS2-related air quality monitoring , I think we probably have more data on local air quality than anywhere else on the planet. The question is how we use that data to make changes that improve our health. We have a right to breathe clean air in Somers Town.’