School neighbourhood and compliance with WHO-recommended annual NO2 guideline: A case study of Greater London
File(s)2107.12952v1.pdf (583.55 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Shoari, Niloofar
Heydari, Shahram
Blangiardo, Marta
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Despite several national and local policies towards cleaner air in England, many schools in London breach the WHO-recommended concentrations of air pollutants such as NO2 and PM2.5. This is while, previous studies highlight significant adverse health effects of air pollutants on children's health. In this paper we adopted a Bayesian spatial hierarchical model to investigate factors that affect the odds of schools exceeding the WHO-recommended concentration of NO2 (i.e., 40 μg/m3 annual mean) in Greater London (UK). We considered a host of variables including schools' characteristics as well as their neighbourhoods' attributes from household, socioeconomic, transport-related, land use, built and natural environment characteristics perspectives. The results indicated that transport-related factors including the number of traffic lights and bus stops in the immediate vicinity of schools, and borough-level bus fuel consumption are determinant factors that increase the likelihood of non-compliance with the WHO guideline. In contrast, distance from roads, river transport, and underground stations, vehicle speed (an indicator of traffic congestion), the proportion of borough-level green space, and the area of green space at schools reduce the likelihood of exceeding the WHO recommended concentration of NO2. We repeated our analysis under a hypothetical scenario in which the recommended concentration of NO2 is 35 μg/m3 - instead of 40 μg/m3. Our results underscore the importance of adopting clean fuel technologies on buses, installing green barriers, and reducing motorised traffic around schools in reducing exposure to NO2 concentrations in proximity to schools. Also, our findings highlight the presence of environmental inequalities in the Greater London area. This study would be useful for local authority decision making with the aim of improving air quality for school-aged children in urban settings.
Date Issued
2022-01-10
Date Acceptance
2021-08-26
Citation
Science of the Total Environment, 2022, 803
ISSN
0048-9697
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Science of the Total Environment
Volume
803
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34525726
PII: S0048-9697(21)05113-5
Subjects
Air pollution
Bayesian spatial models
Neighbourhood attributes
Nitrogen dioxide
School's exposure
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Article Number
ARTN 150038
Date Publish Online
2021-09-01