| Comment | There's been a wave of recent studies showing that localised air pollution has a much more significant effect on our bodies than we previously believed. Not just in the sense that we're breathing poorer quality air, but that the particulate matter is actually seriously damaging to all sorts of parts of our bodies, especially those that are still developing. It's increasingly being linked to chronic health conditions too. As you'd expect the density of that particulate matter is highest where there's congestion and cars sitting at a standstill for long periods - studies have also been showing that school drop of points can actually be amongst the densest zones for this pollution in cities (because of parents queuing to drop their kids off).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/05/toxic-air-pollution-particles-found-in-human-brains-links-alzheimers
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/may/17/air-pollution-may-be-damaging-every-organ-and-cell-in-the-body-finds-global-review
Lots of cities across the world are taking similar steps to push car traffic away from schools because of this. |
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