Mayor Sadiq Khan plans solution to London's historic air pollution problem
Above left, a van checks London air and noise quality levels on Westminster Bridge in 1971 (Photo: Collage - The London Picture Archive); right, tourists snap photos of Big Ben and Parliament on a clear day (photo: Instagram @thelittlethingsinlife94).
London’s air quality has come a long way since the “pea soup fog” of previous centuries. But while the phenomenon of visible air pollution in the city has dissipated in recent decades, the danger of exhaust emissions from cars, buses and lorries remains an invisible threat.
Air pollution in the city has been a problem since at least the 1200s, when by some reports smoke from heating coal coalesced into a full-scale ban of its use in homes by King Edward I -- though the practice continued to escalate into the Industrial Revolution and beyond. The city’s worst-reported smog incident, known as “The Great Smog of 1952” or “The Big Smoke” -- which was tied to around 4,000 deaths -- led to the Clean Air Act 1956.
Today, though the pea soup effect of coal burning has largely disappeared, Londoners still suffer from an excess of exhaust fumes. To help combat this silent health threat, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a plan to reduce emissions through Ultra Low Emissions Zones in air pollution hotspots throughout the city. The first of these, a Low Emission Bus Zone, launched March 9 on the Putney High Street route.
“London’s toxic air is an outrage and I promised to make cleaning it up one of my top priorities,” the mayor said in a release. “I have asked TfL to remove the oldest, dirtiest buses from our streets and this new route, along with the 11 others we’ll be introducing, will make a big difference to the pollution caused by our public transport system.”
