Published: 22 January, 2014
By TOM FOOT

HIGHGATE is not as green as it seems, according to a month-long study of pollution levels.

New research has found that, in some streets in NW5, there is double the legal level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Hampstead Heath – which has for centuries served as a cleansing refuge for those recovering from illness – has unusually high levels of pollution.

Camden Green Party local election candidate Sian Berry, who is standing to be elected the Highgate ward, said: “What we found is that Highgate Hill is as bad as streets around Bloomsbury. It is worse than Camden Road. It turned out all the figures are much higher than we expected and there are huge differences that are really clearly caused by local traffic.”

Ms Berry, who lives in Kentish Town, said volunteers carried out the research by placing 21 “diffusion tubes” on lampposts around the Highgate ward for four weeks in November and December.

The tubes were sent to a laboratory for analysis in an exact replica of the process used by councils across the country to monitor air pollution. 

The worst levels were found at the roundabout at the top of Highgate Hill (80 micrograms in a cubic metre of air), outside Lauderdale House (77) and in Highgate Road at the junction with Woodsome Road (72).

The legal limit for nitrogen dioxide – 40 micrograms in a cubic metre of air – is set by the European Union to protect the public from a range of associated health problems including lung cancer and respiratory disease.

The Greens’ study also found that NO2 levels in Hampstead Heath – where the sick have come for centuries to get well – are a cause for concern. Levels near the Parliament Hill café were just one microgram above the legal limit.

A public meeting in Highgate Library has been called for February 27 from 7pm.