I’ve been loving my lungs by campaigning for clean air in Liverpool
Amani, our young campaigner from Liverpool tells us what she’s been doing to raise awareness of air pollution during lockdown and to protect her siblings’ lungs.
I’m lucky because my school is in a green and leafy part of Liverpool and I can just walk there, but I noticed that there were a lot of parents dropping their children off at school, causing traffic jams and parking on the road. I could literally taste the pollution in the air.
My youngest sister was in a pram at the time and as we all walked to school together, I was worried that she was just at the level of the exhausts and breathing in the fumes. Some cars would park up and keep their engines running right near her face – it really upset me.
Monitoring air pollution
Both my parents are medics and are very health conscious and we all wanted to do something about it. The British Lung Foundation were able to help as they explained the harm that pollutants from car exhaust can do to little lungs and to people with lung conditions like asthma.
They gave me some diffusion tubes to measure the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. This is a poisonous gas and very harmful to lungs and can cause other long-term conditions like heart disease and strokes.
I put the tubes up in places where cars were parking and at junctions nearby. After 4 weeks we had them analysed and I was shocked to find that some of them were above the legal limit.
I am campaigning for change
Since then I’ve been busy campaigning for change. I set up my own Facebook group and have got my friends to walk to school. I asked my teachers to help to encourage parents not to drive, or at least not to idle their engines. I also had an article in the school newsletters and was even interviewed on the TV – BBC North West. I showed the journalist how we monitored the air quality and introduced her to my brothers and sisters whose health had sparked my interest in the first place. It was a great experience and I felt really proud when I saw myself on the TV!
My Dad has just bought an electric car and as a family we are now all clean air champions because we love our lungs and want to take care of them, but also want to protect everyone else’s lungs in Liverpool.
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