In my ususal daily morning news read, I came across this item in the Washington Post and as it concerns portions of England and other European cities, I'm sending it along for verification. These days with the news in general being so 'shady', getting back up from citizens actually on the scene is a wise course.
"...Air quality has been a problem in London since at least the Middle Ages. Rapid industrialization and urban growth lent a chronically smoky backdrop to literature throughout the Victorian period. In December 1952, coal-belching homes and factories enveloped London in smog so thick that air, rail and road traffic was halted for five days as cows dropped dead in their fields and people suffocated on the streets.
...In particularly traffic-swollen areas of central London, it took just the first eight days of 2016 to breach the European Union’s NO2 limits for the entire year.
Samantha Walker, policy director for Asthma UK, said that such high concentrations of pollutants can bring on an attack in minutes and that prolonged exposure among children can cause health impacts that last a lifetime...."
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When our son visits us from central London he said he can taste the fresh air here. I found it horrible when we lived in London. Give me green fields any day.
JP
I didn't find it too bad living in London. Mind you I didn't have copd then. The Americans are out of date though as the old peasouper fogs went out in the 1960's with the clean air act. Anyway they have a right old cheek having a dig at us - look at the smog in Los Angeloes and other places there!
I don't think the article was necessarily taking a 'dig' at England; we, in the States, tend to have rather idyllic images of our European cousins and, I for one, am unused to imagining 007 or any of the heroic characters of English heritage hacking and coughing their way through yet another great adventure.
I think it just points up the necessity of all 'ordinary' folk taking the bull by the horns and making our governments truly reflect the 'will of the people' and clean up their acts.
Hi Duncan most of my reply was more tongue in cheek than anything else, I know Americans don't always get the British sense of humour We have similar views about you all. We tend to think of you as loud and wearing flowery shirts shouting everything is bigger and better here and thinking you are convinced the world only consists of your own country. I am sure that's not true though.
I am aware too from American friends that they tend to think of us as quaint, with little villages everywhere with old fashioned folk in. Whilst we do have lots of history and old villages etc. everyone is pretty much modern these days. Our heritage isn't something we think about a lot as we are too busy living our modern lives and pursing wealth and 'success'.
Lots of folk love our royal family but lots more think they are a waste of space and money and continue to perpetuate class and privilege, including me!
I read somewhere about your country that traditional small town America is increasingly a thing of the past. Another tradition going maybe? That would be a shame. x
True enough, many of the smaller towns in Arkansas where I grew up and passed through regularly on the way to the long lost farm of my great uncle and aunt are themselves becoming wasted spots in the road or overrun with crime and drugs; "Times and what they used to be..."; but, then again, they never have been have they??
Just the other day, I saw on the net where a grandma and her 3 year old son were out Christmas shopping in my home town of Little Rock, Arkansas; she didn't move in traffic fast enough for some thug, he got out of his car walked up to hers, shot through the window and killed her grandson. They haven't caught the sub human yet.
Stuff like that never happened when I was growing up there.
How awful. That's one thing which I am extremely grateful we don't have here - guns! I know the gun lobby in USA is very powerful and I would hate it here. x
we live about 100 miles from London by road probably less going cross country , my dad said in late 50s early 60s before the clean acts were fully brought in we use to get it blow over from London here and on the worse days the car use to get covered in a yellow colour substance , don't get that any more
I moved to London as a student in 1982 from an 'ole in th'ground in a field in Yorkshire. After precisely 1 night there I had an asthma attack that lasted me about 3 weeks. I don't mind it too much now when I go but I'd still not want to spend too long there.
I lived in London for around 22 years Minushabens. Mind you I didn't have copd then or even asthma. I did notice though as a smoker that I did cough a lot more when traversing Euston Road going to work because of the awful traffic pollution. And indeed everywhere there was lots of traffic. It can't be healthy.
I used to get the tube to work travelling to Kings X and if you remember the fire there I missed it by 2 hours. I actually walked through the ticket office which got burnt down. A few of my colleagues missed it by minutes. I also heard the Nat West tower bomb at home even though I was around 4 miles away.
To be honest I was more worried by this sort of thing and being mugged than my lungs being damaged, but none of them are good. x
Finding it difficult in more urban areas now with all the log burners going. Having been brought up with solid fuel fires and early married life cleaning ashes out I cannot understand the attraction. Really stinks when you go outside in evening and makes me wheeze.
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We have similar views about you all. We tend to think of you as loud and wearing flowery shirts shouting everything is bigger and better here and thinking you are convinced the world only consists of your own country. I am sure that's not true though.
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