This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE damaging effects of air pollution near deprived schools in London were covered up by Tory former mayor Boris Johnson, new Mayor Sadiq Khan said yesterday.
The Greater London Authority commissioned an environmental consultancy to compile the report in 2013 using data from Kings College London’s environment research group.
Out of 1,777 primary schools in London, 433 (24 per cent) were in locations where average concentrations of nitrogen oxide exceeded EU limits in 2010 according to the report. Mr Johnson cherry-picked positive aspects of the report, which was never published in full.
Eighty-two per cent of schools affected by excess nitrogen dioxide, which increases risk of respiratory diseases, were in areas with high numbers of pupils receiving free school meals.
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “The last mayoralty clearly didn’t want Londoners to know the dire state of pollution in the capital.”
But a spokesman for Mr Johnson claimed that he “never hid the impact” of air pollution and had “put in place the most ambitious and comprehensive measures to address air pollution of any major world city.”
