‘Rainham Residents Feel Gaslit By Havering Council’s Decision Not To Designate The Land On Arnolds Field As Contaminated.’

By Ruth Kettle-Frisby – Guest Writer and Community Activist

Ruth is passionate about fostering positive change within the local community and regularly contributes insights and stories to The Havering Daily.

Ruth Kettle-Frisby has written to Havering Council last week on behalf of Clear the Air in Havering, urging them again to take into proper account robust evidence of the damage to human health caused by repeated exposure to short-term extraordinary spikes in PM2.5 from smoke. 

To put this really plainly, the reason Rainham residents feel gaslit by Havering Council’s decision not to designate the land on Arnolds Field as contaminated is that the data recording the thick smoke that’s choking their children during the summer is then averaged over the course of a year. 

This creates a huge distortion, because annualised data disingenuously dilutes the summer crises on Launders Lane to the false status of ‘unremarkable in comparison to the rest of the borough/London etc.’ that we are so used to hearing.

Clearly, during most of that time – including during long cold winter months – the smouldering underground fires are far less noticeable by residents or detectable by air quality monitors. 

Let us be clear, it is these isolated, extreme spikes in air pollution when the site is on fire during the summer that is causing the most severe distress and harm to both the mental and physical health of Rainham residents. 

These spikes are being produced by the Launders Lane fires during the summer months, starting this year as early as May, at which point monitors were temporarily out of action. 

In the interest of what is right and what is so desperately needed, the fires must stop and Rainham residents who are suffering must be listened to. 

I have summarised my letter – first sent on February including the evidence in question below.

• Averaging air quality data over a year is the standard approach when collecting general air pollution data, but does not acknowledge the substance of the crisis on Launders Lane – that repated exposure to acute spikes in fine partcicles and potentially dangerous chemicals these partcilecs can carry every summer are putting children’s health at serious risk.

• The point is that annualised data cannot, by its nature, account for these extraordinary spikes in harmful toxins.

• This substantial body of research, clearly indicates that short-term exposure to air pollution can lead to significant and concerning health effects, particularly when exposure is repeated, including increased risk of respiratory symptoms like coughing and wheezing, aggravated asthma, cardiovascular issues like heart attacks and stroke, and even increased mortality, with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) being a key pollutant of concern:

• Acute, repeated exposure to air pollution can significantly worsen asthma symptoms, leading to increased frequency and severity of asthma attacks, particularly by triggering inflammation in the airways and causing bronchoconstriction, making it harder to breathe; this is well-established in research and considered a major environmental risk factor for people with asthma. 

• It appears no general testing of the smoke has been undertaken to see what its constituent chemicals are, and in what concentrations. Rather, it has been tested for a very limited range of potential contaminants, and even those that have been monitored have not been fully assessed, because TRL’s assessment does not take into account the impact of acute exposure.

Key points from the literature include:

• Respiratory effects

• Cardiovascular effects

• Particularly vulnerable populations include children, older adults, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions and disabilities.

· Repeat exposure concerns include:

• Benzene short-term exposure:

• Toulene short-term exposure:

This is especially concerning given that the results show that there are spikes in the summer months that exceed the annual limit, suggesting that on certain days during these months there will be high levels of each chemical present in the smoke, which is supported by Breathe London’s monitoring revealing spikes in PM2.5 and NO2 during these times.

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