Air quality

We are committed to making sure that people in Wandsworth have clean air to breathe. We have come a long way since the heavily polluted air of the past and have achieved cleaner air through regulating industry and tightening emissions standards for vehicles. Air quality is now generally very good. But there are still sometimes unacceptably high levels of pollution.

The main air pollutants of concern are:

• Nitrogen dioxide - associated with vehicle exhausts, combustion processes and some industrial processes
• Sulphur dioxide - mostly from the combustion of oil and solid fuel, but also from diesel vehicles
• Carbon monoxide - from vehicle exhausts and poorly operated boiler plant particles
• Very fine particles emitted from vehicle exhausts, combustion processes and industrial sources. Usually referred to as 'PM10' - particles less than 10 microns in diameter. A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre.
• Benzene: an organic chemical emitted in exhausts and also during refuelling.
• 1,3 Butadiene: another organic chemical emitted in exhausts and also from some industrial processes
• Lead - mostly from leaded petrol
• Ozone

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