We focus on four complex health issues more prevalent in urban areas
With the Social Progress Imperative, we've developed the first neighbourhood level, health-focused social progress index of its kind.
With Wellcome Trust
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Health effects of air pollution
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Ying lives with her husband and child in Bermondsey. Being environmentally aware and a mother, she would like to know more about air pollution and how it affects our health.
Ying regularly walks her daughter around busy high streets in Camberwell and Peckham but also makes sure she gets off the main roads into parks such as Burgess Park:
I love to walk and being pregnant has never stopped me. If my journey is an hour or less, I’ll do it on foot. I try to be outdoors as much as I can, and with Burgess Park virtually on my doorstep and Southwark Park nearby, I get a bit of green space most days.
I grew up in Australia and spent some of my childhood in Hong Kong. I think this make me very aware of how different the air can feel in different places. Hong Kong is extremely polluted, whereas Australia less so. Often, I think, when you leave London, you feel, ‘Oh, the air is so fresh here.’
I moved to Bermondsey in 2018 and enjoy the multicultural aspect of the area – and the location near to the river and central London.
Where possible we try and be environmentally friendly – buying locally and seasonally, cutting down on plastic, recycling. I don’t think is because I think it will affect our air quality directly, but we are kind of conscious that it affects global output of carbon emissions.
“ I don’t know exactly how air quality and climate change marry up, but I’m sure there is some crossover Ying
I don’t know exactly how air quality and climate change marry up, but I’m sure there is some crossover
Ideally, we would have bought an electric car, because of the environment, but they are still outside of our budget.
I’m aware of the traffic round here and I know it has an effect on air quality. This has not stopped me spending time outdoors, but I’d like to know more about local pollution.
When we are in the middle of the park, for example, it feels less polluted than when we’re by the side of Old Kent Road. But I don’t actually know if the air quality is any better or worse in the middle of the park.
This pram is very popular. But someone told me in one of the iterations it’s lower to the ground and it’s kind of the same height as where the car exhausts are.
I think the council should be providing advice as to what the air quality actually is in the borough, and then what residents can do to improve it.
“ She's not a newborn anymore but when all your organs are still developing, then obviously I think it matters, the environment that you're taking in, in terms of your development.
She's not a newborn anymore but when all your organs are still developing, then obviously I think it matters, the environment that you're taking in, in terms of your development.
Alika and Alex, 3, live in Southwark. Alika, who moved to London from Nigeria in 2000, is doing an electrical apprenticeship by day and is a youth worker by night.
Marilyn is a retired art teacher who lives in Brixton with her husband and three grown-up children. As a teenager she was treated for TB and, following the recent death of her brother, has become even more concerned about her health.
John is 72 and lives in Southwark. He loves the hustle and bustle of the area, but is not very mobile and doesn’t get out as much as he’d like to.
Piarve is the parent of Janila, 8, and has lived in Southwark all her life. Piarve works in events for an interior design company, as well as running sewing classes and other community fashion initiatives.
The more we know about air pollution in urban areas, the more we will be able to design effective solutions.
We are running a ten-year programme to tackle the health effects of air pollution and poor air quality in cities and other urban areas.
Air pollution can affect children’s organ development from pregnancy through to early adolescence, with children living near busy roads four times more likely than adults to have reduced lung function. Yet, our local parents are more likely than other groups to think the dangers of air pollution have been exaggerated.