Revealed: Sheffield's top 10 polluted primary schools - and the worst one 'should be moved'
A Sheffield primary school with the city’s worst air pollution should be moved - or the road outside it closed, an air quality expert says.
Lowfield Primary on London Road comes out top in a ranking which combines the three main pollutants - ultra fine and fine particles and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
And it is nearly as bad as at Tinsley Infant and Junior schools which closed in 2014 due to toxic air - the first time this ever happened in the UK.
Now, campaigner Graham Turnbull, founder of Clean Air for Sheffield, says it is time to ‘think the unthinkable’ at Lowfield Primary and either move it, or close the adjacent four-lane Queens Road on school days.
He said: “Children are more vulnerable to these pollutants than adults and these figures showing the shocking extent of what they are exposed to every day they are at school.”
Lowfield Primary breaches World Health Organisation limits for all three main pollutants, with Nitrogen Dioxide more than three times over and ultra fine particles more than double, according to website AddressPollution.Org
The readings, from the last ‘normal’ year in 2019, mean it has more air pollution than 90 per cent of UK addresses.
Mr Turnbull believes ‘School Streets’ - closing roads to traffic at the start and end of the day - could bring big improvements to schools in the top 10.
They have already been rolled out at nine others in Sheffield, but so far the council has ‘shied away’ from imposing them on anything but quiet residential roads and cul-de-sacs.
He added: “I believe School Streets could play a role in combating air pollution at most of these schools. It is time to decide whether children’s health is more important.”
In Tinsley in 2014, nitrogen dioxide at the school on Siemens Close hit 37ug/m3. The most recent ‘normal’ figure for Lowfield was almost 36, Mr Turnbull said. The World Health Organisation’s limit is 10 ug/m3, although the current legal limit in the UK is 40.
Tinsley Infant and Junior schools became Tinsley Meadows Primary School on Norborough Road. It is the seventh worst polluted school in Sheffield, according to AddressPollution.Org
Sheffield City Council was approached for comment.