IN response to Alison Johnstone on air pollution and cars, and as one of her Edinburgh West constituents she refers to, I object to her assumption that we are all behind her (The ill health caused by air pollution can cost us as a society, The National, January 19).
She states the air pollution monitor somehow indicates that the air quality is a problem, which must only mean the grey box on St John’s Road in Corstorphine at the traffic lights with Clermiston Road.
As this has been strategically placed to get the desired results, about 18 inches from where a stationary vehicle would be stuck at the lights, then lo and behold it has excessive readings of particulates.
Also, readers, please note that carbon dioxide is NOT a poison and you guzzle it down in your Irn-Bru and exhale it your entire life, even when you sleep, and when you stop doing that the technical term for the resultant health condition is “dead”.
Her poorer constituents do NOT live near busy roads as she bizarrely states, but we live hundreds of yards from main roads in schemes built in the 50s that have many trees and essentially are leafy suburbs with a lot of green everywhere. Does she actually know where Clermiston is?
Finally, as if somehow she has to have additional backing, she quotes the lobby group Friends of the Earth, who are enemies of democracy but if they had their way we would have had congestion charges imposed over a decade ago without a vote, and only a small elite group – such as MSPs for example – could afford draconian taxed cars that would also be barred from being of any practical use by not being allowed in town.
What really irked was her “let them eat cake” attitude and that we should “get the bus” – I will inform my 81-year-old dad that in future he will have to visit his doctor and go shopping that way instead of getting a lift from me, which I am sure will improve his health as he approaches his 90s (sarcasm in case you missed it).
Gary Smith
Edinburgh
ALISON Johnstone raised an important issue about the effects of air pollution on society’s cumulative health and stated that the major causes of this were vehicle exhaust fumes. I would contend that domestic chimneys and wood-burning stoves may be the “elephants in the room” and are right up there amongst the worst polluters, yet never seem to be mentioned when this topic is discussed.
As a result of the London smog of the 50s entire city areas were (rightly) designated smoke-free zones. However in small towns there seems to be little control over domestic appliances and chimneys, and local councils were even encouraging this form of heating with financial incentives.
With only 96 monitoring sites across Scotland, it is impossible to state the main source of air pollution in many areas. Living in Troon, it would be possible for me to clean visible black particulate matter off my doors and windows on a daily basis, and when I step outside on cold winter days, rather than experiencing clean fresh air, I get a lungful of smoke from residents’ houses. Shouldn’t we be looking at this too?
M Smith
Troon
HAVING driven from the west end of Glasgow to a Celtic Connections concert in the city centre on Saturday night, I can attest that in our battle to get from A and B we pumped out plenty of extra emissions. As the operation times of the Nelson Mandela Place “bus gate” were completely obscured, we ended up going round in circles. Is the plan simply to frustrate drivers until they abandon their cars?
Joan Brown
Edinburgh
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here