MORE than 160 people in Southampton have died because of air pollution in just one year, it has been revealed.
New data have shown that in 2017 there were 168 air pollution related deaths in the city. This is the 5.7% of all adult deaths in Southampton in the same year, researchers said. City bosses have said action to improve air quality in the city is being taken. But experts are now calling on civic chiefs and the government to prevent “avoidable deaths”.
There is also, directly downwind, in the prevailing South Westerlies, Fawley Refinery, the largest oil refinery in the United Kingdom. 30 year ago Southampton regularly stank of Sulphur fumes, although it is now a very rare occurrence. It has to be said that other pollutants have no detectable smell, at least to healthy people, on the other hand, on the bad pollution days I can smell and taste the pollution.
There is no mistaking the wood burners though, the acrid stench travels for 100's of yards and is debilitating, my air ways contract (as they should) and breathing is very hard indeed, the effects of which last for a day afterwards. This winter, my walking days have suffered, as I will no longer go outdoors on the high pollution days, the risk of doing so is just not worth taking.
Quite regularly the air in London is a lot cleaner than in Southampton, now that is saying something.
I live on the south coast where WHO stats a couple of years ago showed we are in the top 10 worst polluted towns/cities in the UK. There are people in out Breatheasy group who moved down from London to get away from pollution and now find themselves worse off. Our town has claimed that its doing its bit for the environment by planting thousands of trees. None of us can think where they are, except perhaps where they are having to deplete large areas of woodland due to disease, and may be replacing these with other trees. The County Council have decided to make massive increases in parking charges but are doing nothing to provide affordable public transport that takes people where they need to go. Cycle routes are farce - there are a couple of stretches which be fine if they didn't lead you onto awful roads. On Friday night a cyclist died in a nearby town which again has no proper safe cycle routes.
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