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Air pollution from Heathrow detected in central London | The Independent

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Air pollution from Heathrow airport is being blown more than 11 miles into central London, a ground-breaking new study has found.

Researchers from King's College London have, for the first time, measured ultra-fine particles across four major European cities.

They found airports were a significant source of ultra-fine air pollution particles.

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While traffic pollution remains the most dominant source of pollution, the study, published in Environment International, found London had the highest concentration of ultra-fine particles compared to other cities with the greatest concentration coming when wind was blowing from the airport towards the city centre.

London is surrounded by airports, the busiest being Heathrow with 480,000 plane journeys in 2018. The airport is just over 11 miles from the air monitoring station in North Kensington used by researchers for the study. A second station was based on Marylebone Road.

Dr Ioar Rivas, research fellow and author of the study, said: "We expected traffic emissions to be an important source of ultra-fine particles in cities but we now know that airport emissions, even if located at the outskirts of the city, can travel far enough and reach populations in urban areas away from the airport."

Most air pollution studies have looked at the levels of larger particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometres, but this latest study looked at smaller ultra-fine particles less than 0.1 micrometres in size.

The smaller the particle, the deeper it can penetrate into the lungs, and ultra-fine particles have been linked to brain cancer.

The research was carried out in London​, Barcelona Helsinki, and Zurich between 2007 and 2017.

Cars contributed the most air pollution across all four cities, ranging between 71 per cent and 94 per cent.

Dr Gary Fuller, senior lecturer in air pollution measurement, added: "Cities around Europe have polices to reduce airborne particles from traffic that should also reduce people's exposure to ultra-fine particles, but aircraft emissions are not being addressed in the same way."

The research team now plans to study the effects of the different sources of ultra-fine particles on mortality and hospital admissions.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health have also linked exposure to ambient air pollution with lower bone-mass levels in humans.

The research, published in JAMA Network Open, looked at the bone health of more than 3,700 people from 28 villages outside the city of Hyderabad, in southern India.

Each participant was assessed using a type of radiography that measures bone density as well as having the bone mass calculated. The results of the study showed that exposure to ambient air pollution, particularly to fine particles, was associated with lower levels of bone mass.

Lead researcher Otavio Ranzani said: "This study contributes to the limited and inconclusive literature on air pollution and bone health. Inhalation of polluting particles could lead to bone-mass loss through the oxidative stress and inflammation caused by air pollution."

Cathryn Tonne, coordinator of the study, added: "Our findings add to a growing body of evidence that indicates that particulate air pollution is relevant for bone health across a wide range of air pollution levels, including levels found in high-income and low-and-medium income countries."

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Air pollution from Heathrow detected in central London

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Air pollution from Heathrow airport is being blown more than 11 miles into central London, a ground-breaking new study has found. Researchers from King's College London have, for the first time, measured ultra-fine particles across four major European cities. They found airports were a significant source of ultra-fine air pollution particles.

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Huge helium gas find in east Africa averts medical shortage | Science | The Guardian

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The discovery of a vast reserve of helium in east Africa has allayed fears of a global shortage of the precious gas crucial for the running of brain scanners, major scientific facilities, and parties that require floating balloons and squeaky voices.

According to independent analysts, the natural store of helium found in the Rift valley in Tanzania contains an estimated 54bn cubic feet of the noble gas, enough to inflate a similar number of party balloons, or to fill 1,200,000 hospital MRI scanners, researchers said.

A team from the UK and Norway uncovered the huge resource after applying expertise gleaned from oil and gas exploration to understand how helium is produced in rocks under the ground and where it accumulates.

"This is a significant find," said Jon Gluyas, professor of geo-energy at Durham University and a member of the discovery team. "There are reserves of helium gas, but they have been depleting quite quickly. The price has gone up 500% in 15 years." The steep rise has occurred despite the discovery of a huge natural gas field in Qatar that contains a small percentage of helium gas. "We have to keep finding more, it's not renewable or replaceable," he added.

The steady decline in global helium reserves concerned some doctors so much that they had called for a ban on its use in party balloons. At a British Medical Association meeting last year anaesthetist Tom Dolphin told delegates: "This invaluable, irreplaceable gas is being literally handed to children in balloons so they can be entertained for a few minutes until they get bored and let go." One Nobel laureate, the late Robert Richardson, said in 2012 that helium balloons should cost £75 each to reflect the true cost of the gas.

Helium is used in MRI scanners, nuclear research facilities, and for specific industrial tasks such as leak detection. Vast amounts are needed to keep superconducting magnets cool at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva.

The gas is the second most abundant element in the observable universe, but Earth's initial endowment was lost to space many billions of years ago. What is available for use today is produced inside rocks through the steady radioactive decay of uranium and other elements. The hard part is finding where the gas builds up into useful reserves.

Until now natural helium supplies have been discovered by accident and only in small quantities through oil and gas drilling operations. But working with a Norwegian helium exploration company, Helium One, the UK scientists found that heat from volcanoes in the east African Rift valley released helium from ancient rocks buried deep underground. It then became trapped in shallower gas fields.

The research was presented by Durham University PhD student Diveena Danabalan at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan.

"This is a gamechanger for the future security of society's helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away," said Chris Ballentine, a geochemist at Oxford University who was part of the discovery team.
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Huge helium gas find in east Africa averts medical shortage

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The discovery of a vast reserve of helium in east Africa has allayed fears of a global shortage of the precious gas crucial for the running of brain scanners, major scientific facilities, and parties that require floating balloons and squeaky voices.

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World’s helium supply ‘could run out within a decade’, chemistry professor warns | The Independent

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The world's helium supply is on course to run out within a decade unless we recycle more of the inert gas, an expert has warned.

David Cole-Hamilton, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews, urged people not to have helium balloons at parties as the gas is needed for MRI scanners and deep sea diving.

There is no chemical way of manufacturing helium with the supplies on Earth coming from the slow radioactive alpha decay that occurs in rocks.

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The price of helium has surged 500 per cent in the past 15 years as researchers struggle to find more of it.

Professor Cole-Hamilton, said that world supplies of helium were due to run out in 10 years.

He said: "By having helium balloons at your birthday party you may prevent people from having an MRI scan. We are recycling it from the MRI scanners and most of it from deep sea diving, but we are not recycling from the balloons. In both of those applications it's recycled, however helium is very light so if it gets into the atmosphere it can escape.

"If we recycle I think we would be fine, but if we gradually put more balloons up in the atmosphere then the timescale will be shorter."

Professor Cole-Hamilton said that the world had about six years' worth of helium supply from a mine in Tanzania with the rest coming from the US.

Smartphones could become unaffordable if we do not recycle more of the materials in them, he added.

Professor Cole-Hamilton said that Indium, which is currently obtained from zinc ore mining, will be one of the first elements used to make smartphones that will run out at current rates of recycling.

He said: "That ore will run out in about 20 years in the rate we are using it. We will be able to [build mobile phones] but it will become much more expensive. We would have to pay more for it and probably people at the lower end of the economic activity spectrum would find each much more difficult but may they would keep their phones for longer.

"But I think that won't happen because scientists are waking up to the fact that this is a problem."

Describing what he believes needs to happen to prevents elements such as indium and helium from running out, Professor Cole-Hamilton said: "We have to first of all reduce the number of mobile phones. We exchange one million mobile phones in the UK every month.

"Secondly, we should be able to replace the battery, then we have to recycle all the elements that are in it and we have to look for replacements which are more abundant."

Asked who was responsible, he said: "The consumer and, of course, the manufacturers because they want to sell more phones so they want you to change your mobile more often. We have to have a proper process for recycling materials."

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World's helium supply 'could run out within a decade', expert warns

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The world's helium supply is on course to run out within a decade unless we recycle more of the inert gas, an expert has warned. David Cole-Hamilton, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews, urged people not to have helium balloons at parties as the gas is needed for MRI scanners and deep sea diving.

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Developing the Atmosphere

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The Earth's early atmosphere - Developing the atmosphere - AQA - GCSE Chemistry (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about the early atmosphere with GCSE Bitesize Chemistry (AQA).

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Polluting the Atmosphere

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The greenhouse effect - Polluting the atmosphere - AQA - GCSE Chemistry (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Learn how human activity is polluting the atmosphere with Bitesize GCSE Chemistry (AQA).

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Sample Exam Questions

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Chemistry of the atmosphere - Multiple choice questions - Sample exam questions - Chemistry of the atmosphere - AQA - GCSE Chemistry (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Get ready for your exams with this BBC Bitesize GCSE Chemistry of the atmosphere (AQA) exam preparation guide.

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Developing the Atmosphere

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The Earth's early atmosphere - Developing the atmosphere - AQA - GCSE Combined Science Revision - AQA Trilogy - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the early atmosphere with GCSE Bitesize Combined Science (AQA).

# data[].attributes.body
Polluting the Atmosphere

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The greenhouse effect - Polluting the atmosphere - AQA - GCSE Combined Science Revision - AQA Trilogy - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how human activity is polluting the atmosphere with Bitesize GCSE Combined Science (AQA).

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Sample Exam Questions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chemistry of the atmosphere - Multiple choice questions - Sample exam questions - AQA - GCSE Combined Science Revision - AQA Trilogy - BBC Bitesize

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Get ready for your exams with this BBC Bitesize GCSE Combined Science chemistry of the atmosphere (AQA) exam preparation guide.

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VIDEO | Cognito

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GCSE Chemistry - Evolution of the Atmosphere