Increasingly it is thought that high levels of air pollution are detrimental to health, especially for susceptible members of the community, such as the elderly, children, asthmatics and individuals with bronchitis. It is important to the Council to ensure that pollution levels are regularly checked to protect the population of the Borough.

Monitoring of air quality in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames takes place 24 hours a day. Currently the section has one mobile monitoring unit and two static units. One is located in Castelnau outside the Public Library and the other is at the Wetlands site. The mobile unit is moved around the borough to different locations.

Continuous Monitoring of the following pollutants is carried out:

  • Nitrogen dioxide NO2
  • Sulphour dioxide SO2
  • Ozone O3
  • Carbon Monoxide CO
  • Particulates PM10's
  • Benzene BTEX
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons PAHs


We also run a program of background monitoring of the pollutant NO2, this is achieved using diffusion tubes, which are located at a number of sites throughout the borough. In addition we monitor at five sites for Benzene and one site for PAH.

All local authorities have been given objectives by the Government to reach air quality targets by 2005. In Richmond this is being carried out in a process of review and assessmet.

Environment Agency is responsible for maintaining or improving the quality of fresh, marine, surface and underground water in England and Wales.

The aim is to prevent or reduce the risk of water pollution wherever possible, and to ensure that it gets cleaned up if pollution occurs that might lead to effects on ecosystems and or people.

CONTACT DETAILS

To complain about the quality of a water course and to report a pollution incident you can ring the Environment Agency on their 'Pollution Hotline' 0800 807060.