I have published a new video in my 'Labour could' series this morning. In it, I argue that by law we are meant to enjoy clean water and safe food, but air quality is very largely ignored in law. This is absurd because improved air quality in this country would save hundreds of thousands of lives, save the NHS a fortune and massively improve productivity. The gains would massively outweigh any costs. Labour should be delivering it.
The audio version of this video is here:
The transcript is:
I've been making a quite long now series of videos on what Labour could do without spending a great deal of public money because, as we all know, Rachel Reeves is trying to tell us that there is no money left. I don't agree with her, but within that constraint there are still lots of things that Labour can do that, so far, we've heard nothing about.
Let me give you another example. Labour could require that there be clean air in public spaces.
Now, this would impose some cost on the government, I admit. It would impose more cost on the private sector because many public spaces are, in fact, now, of course, private. So, what am I talking about when I talk about public spaces?
I mean places where people congregate. So, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, concerts, pubs and so on. All of those have dirty air as a characteristic.
So, too, do workplaces and schools and hospitals.
Now, why does this matter? Well, it matters a lot.
We have regulation on clean water and we're supposed to enjoy it, even though our water companies aren't that good at always fulfilling their obligations.
We're meant to have clean food. And thank heavens we do still have sufficient enforcement to ensure that is usually the case. As a consequence, people aren't ill for that reason.
But we know that vast numbers of people are ill because of dirty air.
How do we know that? Well, COVID was the most obvious example, of course. 230,000 people are believed to have died as a consequence of Covid, which was always an airborne disease. It was capable of being controlled by the use of what are called HEPA filters. If only those quite cheap units had been put into public spaces, the number of people who would have died would have fallen considerably.
And that will be true of the next pandemic, wherever it comes from. Whether it be another form of COVID, or bird flu, or flu itself, whatever it is, clean air will reduce the risks to us.
But there's more benefit than just that, although that's enormously significant. The other benefit is that there's a massive increase in productivity, particularly in the workplace and in schools if people work in clean air.
It's been estimated that if you had clean air, simply using these filters, in schools, then you would increase the amount of effective learning time by more than 10 percent per week. You could either cut down the length of the term, or you could send children through the school process quicker, or they could just learn a lot more because they can concentrate when the air is not full of carbon dioxide, which these filters reduce as well.
We all know the phenomenon of being, well, sluggish after lunch. When I do public talks, the two o'clock slot is always the graveyard moment for any speaker. You know nobody's going to pay attention because everybody is slumped in their chair. Clean air helps avoid that risk. Of course, some of it is induced by having just eaten, but if you have clean air, then you don't get that sense of sluggishness that arrives.
And imagine this happened in the workplace as well. We have a government obsessed about the lack of productivity in the UK. Clean air. could by itself be the biggest contributor to the increase in productivity in the workplace in this country, massively increasing our gross domestic product as a consequence.
And people would feel better as well.
But let me be clear, whilst I am therefore saying that this will have a cost, I firmly believe that the benefits will massively outweigh that cost. So what I'm proposing is not only net neutral, it's almost certainly a massive net gain to the government.
So why won't they do this? I genuinely don't know. Doctors have been arguing for clean air for ages. They know the risks. They know the benefits. They know that this will massively increase people's well-being by improving their productivity and their concentration.
So come on Labour, please do it. You could, you could do it quickly, and you could massively change the way in which our whole society works.
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I was looking at an article on the ‘Board’ schools built in London at the end of the 19th Century.
It was pointed out how well they were designed and built with no sharp corners and of course more to the point high ceilinged rooms and lathe windows.
The extension at the rear of my house has to have recessed lights as there isnt enough space to put in a suspended lamp!
Yes there are energy costs bit what about higher ceilings and rooms filled with natural light to both lift the spirit and keep the air fresh.
Oh, and its worth pointing out that a wing was built on a school in the Wirral back in the last 1950’s that has never required heating because it was well designed, so it can be zero carbon as well.
I’d hazard a guess that if they took the legislative route the arguments deployed against action would be the same as those deployed in favour of keeping lead in petrol. & it would probably be a very similar style of lobbyists.
One strong argument in favour (of clean air) is that filtration would remove pollen and other particles which cause, amongst other things, hayfever, asthma etc. All new buildings could be designed in that way. If the electricity board MANWEB could do it in 1970 (for their HQ in Chester), all companies can do it now
Agreed
Architype architects have built a series of schools to Passivhaus standards at the same cost as standard building regulation schools but with much lower running costs. They use HRV Heat Recovery Ventilation that filters the air (usually F7 up to PM2.5 particles) and have CO2 monitors in class rooms to alert teachers if further ventilation is required. See for example :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MffKNX5qlLw&list=PLAD94D448BBA00BB9
I have a sneaky feeling that anything that you propose, even at zero cost, will attract Labours ‘Bain Principle’ simply because of the source.
So it’s imperative that you keep them coming!
More power to your elbow (or the little grey cells or whatever magic ingredient keeps you going). Ko-fi coming up.
Thanks
Bill Mitchell said on his blog that he was horrified to find that there were no air purifiers at the Leeds venue for the MMT conference. I understand he wore a face mask throughout and did the book signing in the open air. Do I assume that air purifiers in public spaces are widespread in Australia? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one in the UK, and I am as baffled as you are as to why that is the case.They aren’t even very expensive.
I am not familalr with what is happening in Asutralia
Air purifiers have a large presence in the US because almost every type of building (built since 1970) has an HVAC system. Air purifiers are part of almost all modern HVAC systems installed after 1990.
[…] Labour could deliver clean air – and really should if it wants to succeed Funding the Future […]
“We all know the phenomenon of being, well, sluggish after lunch”
Speak for yourself! After lunch normally go to the gym, have a round of golf or go on a 20m bike ride up and down box hill. I am
58 but, unlike you, not the shape of a barrel of bee. I suggest you lose a few kg and do some exercise and that will stop you napping in the afternoon. Please don’t judge everyone by yourself..
@ Peter.
I simply don’t believe you I’m afraid.
If what you say is true you are probably dangerous and should be confined for you own good. 🙂
Mandatory hand washing at international airports and international train stations could make a significant difference to the spread of some infectious diseases.
There was a paper in 2019 on this which was widely ignored, but there’s an opportunity for public health officials to pick it up now.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/risa.13438
But it would have had no imapct at all on Covid because it was an airborne disease
Are you trolling?
There is much to agree with in this blog and i am delighted to hear the argument being made for cleaning the air in public spaces however, hepa filters do not remove carbon dioxide. I have four hepa air purifiers at home and they are an affordable and easy way to improve the air but i think they may have to be augmented with some degree of fresh air ventilation to reduce carbon dioxide levels in order to achieve the effects you note above. There is new research which shows that high levels of co2 also reduce the natural decay of airborne covid particles so it is a worthwhile goal to reduce co2. Additionally, i think there should be wider use of upper room germicidal UV light (where applicable) to help ‘clean’ the air as it is quiet.
Thanks
I found some air scrubbers and CO2 monitors in a store room at school unused. There are two classrooms off the 6th form area,and I got them installed. Classroom A showed 400ppm empty, but hit over 3000ppm with a class of 20. The scrubbers reduced that, with open windows (only 6 ins, as were on the 2nd floor), the 700. My classes didn’t fall asleep despite over 3 hours of lessons and my boring teaching. Most teachers didn’t or couldn’t be bothered, and this post COVID. But then, most of them don’t see any point in a trade union (very common attitude in young teachers).
Impressive stats
@ John Griffin
Teachers shouldn’t be members of a trade union.
They should have a professional association to represent them. Teaching is not a trade.
The question might be what are the sort of things we can do that might have an impact on the spread of disease, not just Covid