London vs Europe in row over cycling on high-pollution days

For anyone interested:
Defra UK Pollution Forecast

London Detailed Pollution 'Nowcast'

PS, links don't always work from the subscription email, you may need to visit the article page comments.

I continued to cycle through it too. However, the Saharan dust only highlighted the issue as it was more visible. There was a worse episode of pollution two weeks earlier. What was telling for me was that several colleagues (who were not exerting themselves) were complaining about hayfever/asthmatic type symptoms which had not presented before.
Urban pollution is a serious issue that we bury at the altar of the automobile.

I cycled through the whole event and never noticed a thing, except for a layer of Mr Cameron's 'Sahara' sand on the car parked outside.

Ignoring dead cats: I recently had my first ever asthma attack as a result of the London pollution. I went for a run and developed a cough. It was only the next day that they talked about the air pollution associated with the blood rain. I then travelled to France and my cough got worse and eventually went to bed wheezing and breathing shallowly. If I hadn't had a doctor diagnose me with asthma a few years ago I don't think I would have known what was wrong. Apparently asthma can strike when the air quality gets better too....which explains the event. I still feel a little tight chested at the moment when I run, though I completed a 40 mile ride the other week since coming back with no issues.

If my local train company ran trains earlier on a Sunday I would never have to drive or ride my motorcycle in London.

Dr Paul Cosford, director for health protection at Public Health England agrees. During the pollution peak in the first couple of days of this month he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “For normal healthy people, I am on my bike today and other people should be. We don’t need to buy little white masks, we need to increase the amount of physical activity that we do because it’s great for our health.”

However, he did warn that those who felt the effects of the poor air qulity should take it easy. He said: “We may notice sore eyes coughs, or throat and maybe a little bit of a wheeze if we’re taking physical activity outdoors and if that occurs it’s sensible to reduce, during these high pollution episodes, the amount of physical activity.”

Make your mind up doctor.

Plenty of independent evidence is available, eg here

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/nowcast.asp

Funny how pollution is always worst along the roads isn't it ?
We really have to move the debate on and there needs to be genuine social stigma attached to unnecessary car use in areas of concentrated population. My personal problem is city types commuting into central London in range rovers.... just wrong on so many levels

The unfortunate fact is that living in a city is likely to make you sick. You might or might not notice the acute symptoms but the long term term consequences are not nice.
If this level of pollution was causes by any other source there would be mass protests etc. But because 'we' directly cause it and are too lazy to use our feet it is not a popular topic.
Even the levels reported are misleading. What they call 'moderate' is pretty much above the EU limits and even 1/2 the 'low' level causes all sorts of unpleasant symptoms such as atrial fibrillation.
My nearest monitoring station in Bristol regularly has very toxic levels of anything it measures.

In 2002 I came down to London from East Yorkshire. After a couple of months I was sent for a company medical and wheezed my way up to the doctor's surgery on the first floor.

After much poking and prodding, questions about asthma in the family (none) and chest problems (none until now) I was informed that I had 'London Lung'.

Put simply, my lungs were unused to the high pollution levels in London and were struggling to adjust. Luckily my lungs adapted over the next six months otherwise I would have had the stark choice of either giving up my job or using an inhaler.

Makes you wonder about the rising rates of childhood asthma.

So instead I should submit myself bad and air quality and the human petri dish of germs known as the London Underground...

The short term incentives and political will to do anything that is good and heathly for the general population is severely missing. We will never get better air quality while governments pander to there Eton mates who have too much profit margin at stake.

I used to have recurrent cough and pretty much once a month was catching a cold. Asthma was developing and I had no idea as to why, since I had no history of it. Since then I wear one of those Respro masks, and apart from the sweat and people calling you Bane I have had no more colds. I'm sorry, but the mayor telling you pollution (particularly NO2s) don't do anything is utter Bull....

Quote:

Dr Paul Cosford, director for health protection at Public Health England agrees. During the pollution peak in the first couple of days of this month he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “For normal healthy people, I am on my bike today and other people should be. We don’t need to buy little white masks, we need to increase the amount of physical activity that we do because it’s great for our health.”

Mainly because those little white masks wont do anything about filtering out PM2.5 particulates.

Now I know one persons experience isn't conclusive or even indicative but here goes anyway.

I had a long planned ride across Suffolk( Woodbridge to Wells) and back the next day which coincided with the last period of higher than normal pollution. Day one was at times apocalyptic with dark skies and the need for daytime lights in what should have been pleasant and bright countryside. Very surreal at times.
I had a cough develop a few days later that persists to date, I believe connected.
Poisoning the air we breath is IMO a step too far even for our usual acceptance of taking up the wrong'n whilst smiling politely.

Boris also said that navigating through the E&C gyratory on a bike is just fine. THis man is rather dangerous.

Isn't the word "themselves" missing from the sub-headline? As it is now I went to the article expecting to read that someone was claiming cyclists were causing more pollution or something.

The McGuffin.

Also to be found in the motion picture portfolio of the Cohen Brothers.

Does anyone know what a 'dead cat' debating tactic is?

I'm quite prepared to believe that Johnson uses such tactics, I've just never heard of them before. From the context, I assume that it means focusing on something irrelevant, and using that as a diversion.