I have a chronic illness which is worsened by the air pollution in my local area.
A staggering one in four neighbourhoods in England (27.5 per cent) breach multiple pollution thresholds that are unsafe for wildlife, new research by Friends of the Earth has found.
The analysis identifies ‘pollution hotspots’ where water, air, noise and light pollution converge at levels that are threatening the future survival of a host of iconic native species, including pollinating bees and native bats.
Pollution hotspots are areas experiencing damaging levels of pollution across four sources including: waterways where raw sewage was dumped for over 336 hours in 2023 or where the ecological health is rated ‘bad’ or ‘poor’; air pollution levels that exceed World Health Organisation guidelines; and artificial light and intrusive noise that disrupt wildlife.
Fatigued
Air pollution is linked to 25,000 people’s deaths annually in England, making it the biggest environmental threat to public health. It is especially dangerous for children, whose lungs are still developing, older people and those with chronic respiratory or heart conditions.
Destiny Boka Batesa lives in Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, the constituency which comes fourth in Friends of the Earth’s ranking of pollution hotspots.
They founded Choked Up with a group of London sixth formers who were dismayed at the disproportionate impact of air pollution on black and brown working-class communities in urban areas in 2020.
Destiny said: “A lot of air pollution campaigners live near so called ‘red routes’ – roads which make up only five per cent of London’s roadways, but carry up to 30 per cent of the city’s traffic – where we’re constantly plagued by air and noise pollution as cars constantly drive past our houses, and even light pollution to a degree. All of these affect our quality of life.
“I have a chronic illness which is worsened by the air pollution in my local area. While my chronic condition is genetic, air pollution worsens it and makes me feel fatigued and constantly ill.
Failed
“Growing up, a lot of friends or family either had chronic illnesses or asthma. It was like many of us were all living only at 75 percent capacity – which already puts you at a disadvantage – and it isn’t fair when you pile on the social inequalities we were already facing.
“I often felt forced to get used to this, but I realised that just because something is common, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s either normal or good. I know my friends and family have been held back by things we can’t control, but air pollution is not one of those things, we can act on it.”
I have a chronic illness which is worsened by the air pollution in my local area.
Friends of the Earth’s is now calling for the right to a healthy environment to be enshrined in a new Environmental Rights Act.
The law would empower communities to hold regulators and public bodies to account to reduce the multiple layers of pollution affecting their areas to better protect wildlife and people.
Sienna Somers, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Successive governments have failed to protect our environment from pollution and ensure people can continue to enjoy the health and wellbeing benefits of thriving nature.
Nature-depleted
"That’s why we’ve ranked pollution hotspots based on constituencies, so citizens and MPs alike can see how pollution impacts their local area and take action.
“What harms wildlife often harms people as well. Many of us are forced to breathe the same dirty air and live near sewage-infested rivers. While we can choose to avoid these polluted waters, many precious species cannot steer clear of the pollution we pump into their living rooms."
They added: “Polluters must be held accountable for the harm they cause and forced to clean it up. Stronger laws to hold polluters accountable would also give power back to communities to defend our rights in court, creating a cleaner and healthier environment for wildlife and people alike.”
Friends of the Earth plotted these nature pollution hotspots onto a map, which can be viewed online here. Chelsea and Fulham was identified as the constituency with the highest concentration of pollution hotspots, followed by Salford, Worsley and Eccles, Vauxhall and Camberwell, and Battersea.
This mapping of nature pollution hotspots serves to underline how England is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with nearly one in six species facing extinction across the UK.
Habitats
Iconic species indicative of a healthy environment such as otters, dippers, Atlantic salmon, and mayflies have little protection against the raw sewage, toxic chemicals and slurry being pumped into their habitats over 1,000 times a day in some of the worst affected areas.
The excessive nutrients from the sewage have made algal blooms rampant, sucking the oxygen out of the water and quite literally choking fish and other wildlife.
Research shows that noise pollution affects the ability of more than 109 species in a variety of environments, including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, arthropods, and molluscs, to communicate and forage for food.
Impacts can include biodiversity loss, reductions in wildlife populations sizes, altered vocal behaviour, such as increasing bird song volume to compete with urban soundscapes.
Light pollution particularly impacts more nocturnal creatures, like bats and moths. Most bat species avoid well-lit areas, but this is becoming increasingly difficult as artificial light from homes, businesses, and roads, even in rural areas, encroaches further into their habitats.
Swum
Four of the 11 mammals native to Britain at imminent risk of extinction are bat species. Artificial lighting can also confuse bird migration routes, lowering their chances of success, survival and reproduction.
Air pollution is also a huge threat to wildlife, particularly pollinators that are vital for our food production. Britain’s native plant life is particularly susceptible to nitrogen overload from air pollution, threatening roughly two-thirds of species.
Noxious fumes from air pollution can reduce honeybees’ ability to recognise scent by up to 90 per cent from only a few metres away, making it near-impossible to follow the trails of flowers.
Whether through the risk of sewage infested waterways, breathing toxic levels of air pollution or witnessing the degradation of our beautiful countryside and loss of wildlife, pollution impacts people as well as nature.
There are only three rivers in England designated as ‘bathing waters’ that are safe enough to be swum in, and even these have merely ‘poor’ water quality status.
This Author
Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth.
