---

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the concentration was of (a) nitrogen dioxide, (b) sulphur dioxide and (c) benzene in each (i) London borough and (ii) London ward in each of the last five years. [156666] Alun Michael: The United Kingdom Automatic Urban and Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network currently has 22 sites in the Greater London area. Annual mean concentrations of each pollutant for each year between 1999 and 2003 for the London boroughs and London wards are given in tables 1, 2 and 3, for nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and benzene, respectively. There are a total of 33 boroughs and 785 wards (1991 ward data) in London. For nitrogen dioxide there are currently 16 London boroughs and 19 London wards that have monitoring in the national network. For sulphur dioxide there are currently 10 London boroughs and 13 London wards that have monitoring in the national network. For benzene there are currently four London boroughs and four London wards that have monitoring in the national network. Data from different sites are not necessarily directly comparable due to the different locations of the sites, for example, kerbside, roadside, background and suburban. The data for all the sites within the United Kingdom Automatic Urban and Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network are available from the National Air Quality Information Archive (www.airquality.co.uk). In addition, a number of London boroughs carry out independent monitoring which is within the London Air Quality Network. Thirty-one boroughs have nitrogen dioxide monitoring, 26 boroughs have sulphur dioxide monitoring and one borough monitors benzene. Table 1: Annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentrations at each site in the Automatic Urban and Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network in Greater London in 1999-2003 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Highest annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentration (micrograms per metre cubed) Sites London Ward 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 borough West London Kensington Abingdon Ward 55 53 52 46 55 and Chelsea Camden Kerbside Camden Adelaide Ward 66 63 66 66 65 London Marylebone Road City of Baker Street 91 93 84 81 107 Westminster Ward London Bromley Bromley Bickley Ward 65 63 61 41 42 London Bloomsbury Camden Bloomsbury 67 59 51 -- -- Ward Hounslow Roadside Hounslow Brentford 60 52 54 58 -- Clifden Ward London Cromwell Road 2 Kensington Brompton Ward 93 88 76 72 76 and Chelsea London Southwark Southwark Browning Ward 56 52 55 47 -- Haringey Roadside Haringey Bruce Grove 51 51 48 46 53 Ward London Sutton Sutton Carshalton 34 32 35 -- -- Central Ward Southwark Roadside Southwark Consort Ward -- 63 65 58 67 London Hackney Hackney Eastdown Ward 60 51 48 47 50 London Eltham Greenwich Eltham Park 36 33 34 30 38 Ward London Wandsworth Wandsworth Fairfield 51 49 53 52 62 Ward Tower Hamlets Roadside Tower Hamlets Holy Trinity 70 65 69 61 67 Ward London Bexley Bexley North End 37 35 36 31 37 Ward London Lewisham Lewisham Rushey Green 54 -- -- 50 58 Ward London North Kensington Kensington St. Charles 46 40 42 40 45 and Chelsea Ward London Brent Brent St. Raphael's 37 36 37 29 32 Ward Sutton Roadside Sutton Sutton 43 40 44 -- -- Central Ward London Teddington Richmond upon Teddington 32 28 29 25 28 Thames Ward London A3 Roadside Kingston Upon Tolworth 59 55 54 58 73 Thames South Ward London Bridge Place, London City of Victoria Ward 63 -- -- 43 52 Westminster Westminster London Hillingdon Hillingdon Yiewsley Ward -- 48 46 45 54 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table 2: Annual mean sulphur dioxide concentrations at each site in the Automatic Urban and Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network in Greater London in 1999-2003 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Highest annual mean sulphur dioxide concentration (micrograms per metre cubed) Sites London Ward 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 borough London Marylebone Road City of Baker Street 13 15 12 10 12 Westminster Ward London Bloomsbury Camden Bloomsbury 13 11 11 7 8 Ward London Cromwell Road 2 Kensington Brompton Ward 12 8 7 7 6 and Chelsea London Southwark Southwark Browning Ward 8 8 9 6 8 Southwark Roadside Southwark Consort Ward 10 5 7 5 6 London Eltham Greenwich Eltham Park 5 6 6 4 5 Ward London Bexley Bexley North End 7 7 7 8 10 Ward London Lewisham Lewisham Rushey Green 8 -- -- 4 6 Ward London North Kensington Kensington St. Charles 6 6 6 4 5 and Chelsea Ward London Brent Brent St. Raphael's 4 4 4 3 4 Ward Sutton Roadside Sutton Sutton 8 9 9 -- -- Central Ward London Teddington Richmond upon Teddington 6 5 5 4 5 Thames Ward London Bridge Place, London City of Victoria Ward 7 -- -- 4 9 Westminster Westminster London Hillingdon Hillingdon Yiewsley Ward 10 10 9 7 8 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table 3: Annual mean benzene concentrations at each site in the Automatic Urban and Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network in Greater London in 1999-2003 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Highest annual mean benzene concentration (micrograms per metre cubed) Sites London Ward 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 borough London Marylebone Road City of Baker Street 10.8 6.3 4.5 3.9 3.1 Westminster Ward London UCL, London Camden Bloomsbury 3.6 2.1 -- -- 1.9 Bloomsbury (pumped tube Ward data)1 London Eltham Greenwich Eltham Park 2.5 1.6 -- -- -- Ward Haringey Roadside (pumped Haringey Bruce Grove -- -- -- -- 3.0 tube data)1 Ward _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Pumped tube data are collected using a non-automatic technique.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

418 c938-40W;418 c955-8W; 156666

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Air pollution Greater London Pollution Benzene Sulphur dioxide Nitrogen dioxide

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk