Pollution levels on the rise across more than half of areas measured by Folkestone & Hythe District.

Mums are amazing! They have given each of us our lives, they carried us, cared for us and sustained us throughout the nine months we tend to spend in their womb.

New research shows direct evidence that toxic air – already strongly linked to harm in unborn babies – travels through mothers’ bodies

Folkestone & Hythe District is NOT part of an Air Quality Management Area. Each year a report is produced by Bureau Veritas setting out air quality levels across the district. The last publicly available air quality report (2018) states:

• Folkestone and Hythe District Council retained its achievement of not recording any exceedances [of NO2 Levels] within the past 5 years.

The report goes onto say:

• Results from 2017, compared to 2016 report NO2 annual mean concentrations have increased at 7 out of the 13 monitoring locations with large increments observed at sites just off the A260, M20 and A20.

• Looking at the past five years, the 2017 annual mean NO2 concentrations appear to be the highest (even if it is only slightly), with concentrations increasing at the majority of the sites since 2015.

NO2 = Nitrogen Dioxide – primarily gets into the air from the burning of fuel.

Climate change is not just a national or international issue, it is a local issue, hence the necessity for a Climate & Ecological emergency to be declared by our Council.

Pollution levels of NO2 are increasing across the monitored areas of the district, as evidenced by Bureau Veritas. These pollutants not only harm babies’ developing lungs, they can permanently damage their developing brains – and, thus, their futures. Also air pollution  has long been linked to Asthma in children. Nobody’s lungs  in our district, or anywhere else ought to be assaulted by polluted air regardless of who they are.

It is not just NO2 which IS a cause of concern. Our Council do not monitor levels of PM2.5 and PM10.

Cllr Stuart Peall (Con) in a response to a question by Cllr Lesley Whybrow (Green), at full Council on the 26th June 2019,  made it clear that these measurements are not taken in our district, as it is not in an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).

Rather than wait,  – prevention is better than cure – our Council ought to act now before the air which we breathe becomes more polluted. Declaring a Climate & Ecological Emergency is one thing, it is an entirely different matter implementing it, which has yet to happen.

With the evidence of what toxic air can do to unborn children, and children with asthma, our Council ought to be moving at as much pace as they are for Princes Parade and Otterpool Park, to implement these vital and important changes. Lives matter, living and unborn children lives. It cannot be, and must not be, out of sight, out of mind.

We are all responsible for air pollution and we must all play our part in reducing it, not just our Council. One can cycle or walk to work, where possible. One can share cars, use public transport or work from home. There are other measures too we can all take to play our part. By taking one small daily step in reducing our footprint one would be contributing to those  amazing mums who we must treat with the duty of care they deserve, and they deserve clean air, as do their children.

The Shepwayvox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime