• ULEZ: where are the health benefits?

    From Spike@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jun 1 08:41:02 2023
    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report
    is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis,
    the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned.

    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:

    - 80% of asthma events are virus related

    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.

    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.

    --
    Spike

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Brian@21:1/5 to Spike on Thu Jun 1 09:09:18 2023
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis, the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned.

    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:

    - 80% of asthma events are virus related

    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.

    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.


    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in
    Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Spike@21:1/5 to Brian on Thu Jun 1 09:50:24 2023
    Brian <noinv@lid.org> wrote:
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report >> is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced >> toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in >> inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”. >>
    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis, >> the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned. >>
    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:

    - 80% of asthma events are virus related

    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.

    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a
    shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.


    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in
    Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    I’d agree with you on that. I’m of an age - and it follows that my classmates at primary and grammar school were obviously the same - where we lived on rationed food, slept in air-raid shelters, huddled around coal
    fires, smoking was rife, and we ‘enjoyed’ the London smogs (I was in central London with my parents when the first one arrived). I knew of no children who were asthmatic, perhaps lending support to the hypothesis that
    our immune systems were ‘trained’ from a very early age, in a manner that doesn’t happen now with the results that we can see. In my top-junior class photo, only two children wore glasses, and we were all as thin as rakes.

    The whole ULEZ thing appears to be more about social engineering than
    saving lives, and it’s a disgrace.

    --
    Spike

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JNugent@21:1/5 to Spike on Thu Jun 1 12:00:30 2023
    On 01/06/2023 10:50 am, Spike wrote:

    Brian <noinv@lid.org> wrote:
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report
    is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced >>> toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in >>> inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis, >>> the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned.

    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:
    - 80% of asthma events are virus related
    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.
    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a >>> shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.

    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires,
    vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and >> returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled
    deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in
    Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and >> asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    I’d agree with you on that. I’m of an age - and it follows that my classmates at primary and grammar school were obviously the same - where we lived on rationed food, slept in air-raid shelters, huddled around coal fires, smoking was rife, and we ‘enjoyed’ the London smogs (I was in central London with my parents when the first one arrived). I knew of no children who were asthmatic, perhaps lending support to the hypothesis that our immune systems were ‘trained’ from a very early age, in a manner that doesn’t happen now with the results that we can see. In my top-junior class photo, only two children wore glasses, and we were all as thin as rakes.

    The whole ULEZ thing appears to be more about social engineering than
    saving lives, and it’s a disgrace.

    In a Geography tutorial at university (circa 1978/79), we were solemnly
    advised that the early 50s London smogs had killed x people and that it
    was the *sole* cause of death.

    When I immediately challenged that on the basis that if smog were a sole
    cause of death, it necessarily and unavoidably meant that otherwise
    healthy people were killed by it and that by extension, it could have
    and ought to have killed everyone in its path like a swarm of locusts,
    there was an embarrassed silence, broken by a slightly sarcastic "Would
    you like to come up and give the rest of the lecture?".

    The whole thing is a mantra. A liturgy. A belief beyond rational
    questioning.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JNugent@21:1/5 to Brian on Thu Jun 1 11:53:49 2023
    On 01/06/2023 10:09 am, Brian wrote:
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report >> is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced >> toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in >> inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”. >>
    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis, >> the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned. >>
    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:

    - 80% of asthma events are virus related

    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.

    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a >> shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.


    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    In the 950s in Liverpool, winter fog was quite common - every winter,
    several times. Yet by the time I was in my mid-twenties, its incidence
    there was much reduced.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in
    Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    I had a cousin with asthma (despite her living in a far-flung and leafy suburb). She died, ostensibly from an asthma attack, at about 30 years
    old. FWIW, I reckon it was hereditary from the parent who was not my
    blood relative.

    Like you, I didn't know anyone at school (junior or grammar) who had asthma.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Brian@21:1/5 to JNugent on Thu Jun 1 15:10:01 2023
    JNugent <jenningsandco@mail.com> wrote:
    On 01/06/2023 10:50 am, Spike wrote:

    Brian <noinv@lid.org> wrote:
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report
    is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced
    toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in
    inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis,
    the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned. >>
    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a
    dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:
    - 80% of asthma events are virus related
    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.
    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a >>>> shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.

    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, >>> vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and
    returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled >>> deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in
    Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and >>> asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    I’d agree with you on that. I’m of an age - and it follows that my
    classmates at primary and grammar school were obviously the same - where we >> lived on rationed food, slept in air-raid shelters, huddled around coal
    fires, smoking was rife, and we ‘enjoyed’ the London smogs (I was in
    central London with my parents when the first one arrived). I knew of no
    children who were asthmatic, perhaps lending support to the hypothesis that >> our immune systems were ‘trained’ from a very early age, in a manner that
    doesn’t happen now with the results that we can see. In my top-junior class
    photo, only two children wore glasses, and we were all as thin as rakes.

    The whole ULEZ thing appears to be more about social engineering than
    saving lives, and it’s a disgrace.

    In a Geography tutorial at university (circa 1978/79), we were solemnly advised that the early 50s London smogs had killed x people and that it
    was the *sole* cause of death.

    When I immediately challenged that on the basis that if smog were a sole cause of death, it necessarily and unavoidably meant that otherwise
    healthy people were killed by it and that by extension, it could have
    and ought to have killed everyone in its path like a swarm of locusts,
    there was an embarrassed silence, broken by a slightly sarcastic "Would
    you like to come up and give the rest of the lecture?".

    The whole thing is a mantra. A liturgy. A belief beyond rational
    questioning.


    I was in Uni around the same time and attended a lecture at the IEE on
    nuclear power.

    The tree huggers were there, advocating fossil fuels. Paraphrasing one of
    their claims, we have 300 years of coal we don’t need nuclear power.

    A few years later, they turned their attention to killing off fossil fuels.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JNugent@21:1/5 to Brian on Fri Jun 2 00:54:20 2023
    On 01/06/2023 04:10 pm, Brian wrote:
    JNugent <jenningsandco@mail.com> wrote:
    On 01/06/2023 10:50 am, Spike wrote:

    Brian <noinv@lid.org> wrote:
    Spike <Aero.Spike@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report
    is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced
    toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in
    inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed
    reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis,
    the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned.

    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a >>>>> dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:
    - 80% of asthma events are virus related
    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.
    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a >>>>> shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.

    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, >>>> vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and
    returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled >>>> deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in >>>> Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and
    asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.

    I’d agree with you on that. I’m of an age - and it follows that my
    classmates at primary and grammar school were obviously the same - where we >>> lived on rationed food, slept in air-raid shelters, huddled around coal
    fires, smoking was rife, and we ‘enjoyed’ the London smogs (I was in >>> central London with my parents when the first one arrived). I knew of no >>> children who were asthmatic, perhaps lending support to the hypothesis that >>> our immune systems were ‘trained’ from a very early age, in a manner that
    doesn’t happen now with the results that we can see. In my top-junior class
    photo, only two children wore glasses, and we were all as thin as rakes. >>>
    The whole ULEZ thing appears to be more about social engineering than
    saving lives, and it’s a disgrace.

    In a Geography tutorial at university (circa 1978/79), we were solemnly
    advised that the early 50s London smogs had killed x people and that it
    was the *sole* cause of death.

    When I immediately challenged that on the basis that if smog were a sole
    cause of death, it necessarily and unavoidably meant that otherwise
    healthy people were killed by it and that by extension, it could have
    and ought to have killed everyone in its path like a swarm of locusts,
    there was an embarrassed silence, broken by a slightly sarcastic "Would
    you like to come up and give the rest of the lecture?".

    The whole thing is a mantra. A liturgy. A belief beyond rational
    questioning.


    I was in Uni around the same time and attended a lecture at the IEE on nuclear power.

    The tree huggers were there, advocating fossil fuels. Paraphrasing one of their claims, we have 300 years of coal we don’t need nuclear power.

    A few years later, they turned their attention to killing off fossil fuels.

    They don't have to make sense.

    And they never do.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike Collins@21:1/5 to Brian on Sat Jun 3 04:54:34 2023
    On Thursday, 1 June 2023 at 10:09:20 UTC+1, Brian wrote:
    Spike <Aero....@mail.invalid> wrote:

    Mayor of London Khan has said said “The evidence from this landmark report
    is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced
    toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in
    inner London, transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners”.

    If that is so, where are the reductions in deaths from the claimed reduction in pollution levels?

    On a results basis, rather than a political, financial, or emotional basis,
    the ULEZ programme is not producing results as far as health is concerned.

    Reducing toxic pollution by a half should have been accompanied by a dramatic drop in asthma cases, yet no such thing has been reported.

    Three uncomfortable facts are probably in play here:

    - 80% of asthma events are virus related

    - indoor pollution can be 8x that of outdoors.

    - ULEZ does raise a lot of cash, and it engineers social changes. What a shame, therefore, that the claimed health benefits remain elusive.

    When we were young, air pollution was far worse- everyone had coal fires, vehicles were far more polluting, ….. I recall riding my bike in a fog and returning home with a black coating on my clothes.

    Yet, asthma was rare in children. I lived an area which would be labelled deprived today. There was one boy with asthma in our class ( of 40) in Junior school. He had several health issues- including hearing problems and asthma. When I attended Grammar school, I don’t recall anyone in my class.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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