Air pollution...

The hot Bank Holiday weekend has been blighted by sporadic spells of appalling local air quality. Gentle easterly winds blew a cloud of pollution into our bit of the Medway Valley, clearing only briefly when the wind switched from east to south-east for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

Here are some snapshots from Church Hill, showing the brownish smog that was hanging over the valley this fine Bank Holiday morning...

Looking south through the "bright golden haze on the meadow" that is Church Hill

The Medway Bridge, just visible through the smog...

The UKAIR air quality website declares this pollution to be "moderate", although levels of PM2.5s have consistently exceeded US air quality standards (no more than 35ug/m3 over 24 hours) for the past couple of days...

Screen grab of air pollution data from UKAIR's Stoke monitoring station

The US seems far more concerned about the quality and safety of the air they breathe than we do: the UK does not feel a need to set short-term limits for the insidious micro-particulates that damage our lungs and cause misery (or much worse) for those suffering from respiratory illnesses.

The East Anglian and Essex coasts have had it far worse than us, however. Our local air pollution is only rated at 5 ("moderate"). They have had ratings of 8 or 9, with the not-at-well-publicised advice from the Environment Agency to "reduce your outdoor activities" (while holding your breath?).

Screen grab of UKAIR's air pollution map for Bank Holiday Monday

Indeed, because there are no short-term UK limits for micro-particulate air pollution, no national air pollution warnings for the south-east England are currently in force.  Laughably, the gassing of visitors to Frinton beach has therefore been linked to a possible "fuel spill" rather than the truth of a far wider poisoning of the very air that the population of South-East England breathes.

This pollution seems to occur as a result of easterly winds and dissipates rapidly if the wind direction shifts (which it now has, mercifully), so there cannot be a local cause. It is possible that we are simply getting the fallout from the wildfires that have been raging in the forests of Siberia for the past couple of months, although similarly poor air quality occurred back in April and in January, before these fires began.

Easterly winds now spell poisonous air for the South-East, based on recent trends.

Having said that, Cuxton and Halling have more than their fair share of sociopaths who don't seem to think that it is wrong to light bonfires in built-up areas. Despite the fact that there is a municipal tip less than a mile away and that the local council provides a weekly green waste collection service, there are still people who can't be bothered to use them. Instead, they prefer to burn their lawn clippings or whatever (often mixed in with other waste, and always during those lovely evenings or weekends in the summer when everyone has their windows open), distributing sticky black combustion residues over their neighbours' properties and filling other people's houses with toxic, carcinogenic, foul-smelling, choking smoke.

And on that happy note, enjoy your Bank Holiday.

Except if you light bonfires, of course, in which case I hope you have a miserable time.  Which you will, because you don't have any friends...