Clean Air Day – 17th June 2021

Published: 17/06/2021 11:35

Every year, air pollution causes up to 36,000 deaths in the UK.  The World Health Organisation and the UK Government recognise that air pollution is the largest environmental health risk we face today. Poor air quality causes heart and lung diseases, is linked to low birth weight and children’s lung development and may even contribute to mental health issues.

Clean Air Day is the UK's largest air pollution campaign, engaging thousands of people at hundreds of events, and reaching millions more through the media.

Clean Air Day brings together communities, businesses, schools and the health sector to:

• Improve public understanding of air pollution.
• Build awareness of how air pollution affects our health.
• Explain the easy actions we can all do to tackle air pollution, helping to protect the environment and our health.

With Clean Air Day approaching we asked NHS Grampian staff for some relevant personal stories that others may find interesting and useful.  Below you’ll find a couple of stories on cycling and a couple on home energy use.

With regard to home energy, we realise that not everyone can go down the route of Steve and Susan at the moment without increased Government support, but some funding for insulation is available, check the Home Energy Scotland website for more information and some hints and tips:

Make my home warmer - Home Energy Scotland

Thank you to Dan, Alison, Steve and Susan for these contributions

James Norman, Public Health Practitioner

Cycling

Story 1:

Last week saw the two year anniversary of moving from Glasgow City Centre to Moray. Living in the city centre meant that not only was driving not necessary, but with city centre parking being the way it is, taking the car anywhere would mean giving up a much coveted parking space. Six months of living in Moray taught me that having a driving license is essential – or so I thought. Driving lessons were undertaken, a dual control car was hired, theory tests books bought, mock theory tests were held at the kitchen table - and then the pandemic hit. No more driving lessons. Over a year later, I find myself in the position where I still do not hold a driving license, but it is no longer an issue.

About two months ago, I was offered the use of an e-bike from Sustrans. Now I cannot get enough of it. It has made my commute to and from the Fiona Elcock Vaccination Centre an enjoyable one. Previously my journey took 40 minutes on foot (or 45 minutes by bus!), now I can make it to work in under 15 minutes; although have recently been allowing myself 20 minutes to arrive at work less rosy cheeked. My journey is now good for the environment, good for my fitness and good for my mental wellbeing. The only issue is that now I have zero motivation to get my driving license, meaning when we go back to Glasgow to visit friends and family, I am forced to sit in the passenger seat having a snooze while my partner drives us down the A95 – it’s a vicious cycle.

Dan Brown, Covid Service Support Manger, Health and Social Care Moray

Story 2:

In 2013 I moved from a shire job to a city one just as my car lease came to an end. Being a community worker I thought I might use the pool cars whilst I saved for a car of my own, but no longer being a car owner proved much easier than I thought. I bussed and walked to work for years. I was fitter and had more surplus income than I ever had in my life. In September 2019, I decided to try an electric bike. My commute is 9 miles, it takes around 45 minutes, it is so easy and from a mental health point of view, I arrive at work refreshed and ready to go and on leaving, I get rid of any stress accumulated through the day. Pre-pandemic, I took the bus when there was heavy rain, but with covid around, I decided a change of clothes was all I needed and only took the bus in strong winds or snow.

The global pandemic has arisen because of how we live & farm. There were 100 years between this one and the last one, but we are all likely to see another one in our lifetimes, just as we will all be facing climate disaster. NHS Grampian has around 15000 employees. Imagine the impact we could have if we, as a group, embraced active travel & reduced our own carbon emissions and our consumption overall. My bike is a converted e-bike with separate replaceable battery and motor parts, happy for anyone to have a look and give it a try if you want to learn more. 

Alison McBain (pictured above), Occupational Therapist / Clinical Studies Officer, Royal Cornhill Hospital

Home Energy

Story 1:

The fantasy future for home energy is that we will all live in cosy homes with lashings of hot water, using all the gadgets and appliances we want, all without any CO₂ being released in the process.

Getting to zero carbon without offsetting (eg planting trees somewhere to compensate for our pollution) is not realistic in Scotland in 2021, but how low can we go?

The easiest way to get close to this is to build an airtight, superinsulated structure containing multiple homes heated and powered entirely using renewable energy. But this is ahead of current building regulations and most people don’t live in new houses anyway.

So how feasible is it to get close to zero carbon by retrofitting insulation and renewable technology into an old house?  

In late 2009 we moved into a draughty and poorly insulated oil-heated steading conversion with 90 halogen downlighters. We replaced the lights with LEDs and started dealing with the draughts. In 2010 I started capturing data on our energy usage – just how much oil and electricity were we getting through?

One way of tracking and standardising this is to measure it in terms of kg of CO₂ released per square metre of a home in a year.

There’s some data here on how to work out this figure, although see here for more accurate data on carbon intensity of grid electricity in northern Scotland.

In 2011 – the first full year of data, this figure for our house was 39.1kgCO₂/m²/yr

Obsessive draught sealing continued and we added more rockwool insulation to the loft – 300mm in total.

By 2014 the CO2 figure had dropped to 25.5kgCO₂/m²

In 2014 we had 9.2 kWp photovoltaic panels installed, including a switch to send spare electricity to the immersion heater, reducing our oil consumption. The following year we had open cell foam insulation sprayed under the eaves and injected into the cavity around the doors and windows.

The building was now becoming more airtight but we still needed to leave trickle vents open to provide adequate ventilation. I begrudged letting all that warm air escape in winter so in 2017 we had a Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery Unit fitted. This meant we could close the vents and still have a well ventilated house, while not losing much heat. In 2018 the carbon figure was now down to 12.2kg CO₂/m² but we were still burning oil.

In 2019 we had an extension built and decided to change the heating system at the same time. We got rid of the oil boiler and changed to a Ground-Source Heat Pump – a liquid like antifreeze is pumped down a loop of pipe in a borehole and this is warmed by heat coming from the centre of the earth. The small amount of heat is then concentrated and used to heat the home and its water. We also added solar thermal panels at this time. In 2020 the carbon figure was down at 1.2kg CO₂/m²

Where’s the remaining carbon coming from and can this figure be lowered further?

Although the electricity grid in the north of Scotland benefits from a lot of hydro and wind-generated electricity, at times it also uses gas. At the moment of writing, 18% of the electricity in our district’s network is being generated via gas turbines. This proportion fluctuates through the day according to factors such as demand (how cold and dark it is and how much tea is being drunk) and the wind-speed.

With a smart meter, and the trend towards open data, it’s becoming possible to know at any given moment, how much CO₂ has been released to make the electricity we’re currently using in our homes.

So to get our CO₂ figure lower we would need:

1. The grid to decarbonise further – eg more pumped hydro storage.
2. To be able to store low carbon electricity (typically electricity generated 1-4am) and use it at high carbon times (typically 9am and 5pm).
3. To store our own electricity, generated from our PV panels, and use it at night.

To address 2 and 3 we’ve just had 27kWh of battery storage installed. This should mean that for 6 months of the year we’re just using PV electricity and our carbon figure will be 0kg/m2. However, in winter we’re still going to need to pull most of our electricity from the grid.

It may mean though that from 2021 we can start to measure our CO2 emissions in grams rather than kilograms.

Steve Baguley FRCP

Story 2:

We live in a new self-build home. We knew what we wanted - an “eco” house – but it took 7 years from buying the land to moving in.

Our heating is a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) system. It is basically a heat pump that works indoors. Yes, we have a wood burner for cold winter nights and electric underfloor heating in the shower-rooms but for most of the year it is the MVHR that does the job of keeping us warm.

The house is not quite a true ‘passive-house’ but we have big windows following the sun which give us plenty of solar-gain and daylight. It is very well insulated and pretty draft-free. All our lights are led and we have solar PV and solar thermal for the hot water, although the MVHR system heats that up too very nicely.

Yes this is all expensive to install, but you can get interest free loans for the solar panels from the Energy Trust. We live in the country and most older rural houses and heated using oil – there is the cost and the delivery to worry about there.

Our fuel bill is on a par compared to our old, small, cold house, but where we heated only one room in the evenings, had limited hot water, needed a hot water bottle in bed for most of the year and had to wear a hat to go to the kitchen in winter (honestly) we now have a lovely, evenly warm house and hot water whenever we need it.

MVHR keeps the house ventilated and moisture free so there are no lingering smells and no condensation. I love it. It is pretty standard stuff in Scandinavia but still very uncommon here.

Susan Godlington, Analyst Developer, Dept of eHealth