Life in Leeds City

"Air pollution could be responsible for 60,000 cases of dementia in the UK," reports the Mail Online, which goes on to say that "people exposed to dirty air are 40% more likely to get the disease". Researchers looked at what happened to almost 140,000 people aged 50 to 79, registered with GP practices in London. They compared the pollution levels recorded near people's homes in 2004, then followed people up from 2005 until 2013. During the study follow-up period, 2,181 people got dementia, which equates to 1.7% of the participants. The researchers found that people living in areas of London with the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide (which is a by-product of traffic emissions) had an increased chance of getting dementia, compared to those living in areas with the lowest levels. The study did not show that air pollution caused the increased risk of dementia. The causes of dementia are poorly understood and it's likely that several factors contribute ...

When people think of air pollution, they usually picture the great cities of the East, such as Hong Kong, conquered by an unstoppable smog. And while this is certainly a accurate display of extreme levels of air pollution, the air pollution in the UK is not looked upon with the same horror as the people see no visible evidence of it. Another problem is that air pollution is often seen as the same as global warming and while air polluted with carbon dioxide contributes greatly to global warming, it must be known that air pollution is its own beast. Air pollution can be present without carbon dioxide and other harmful gases such as nitrogen dioxide can be more detrimental to those that breath it in despite having no effect on global warming. For this post, I want to focus on air pollution and not global warming, which is in its own right a major crisis, because air pollution is just as harmful and dangerous yet nowhere nearly well understood. Since the beginning of the industrial...

A new engine developed by Dearman which runs on liquid nitrogen has the potential to help solve the air pollution crisis that has gripped Leeds and cities across the UK. The engine has also been found to be cost-effective and to emit no air pollution whatsoever. Read More The Dearman liquid nitrogen TRU emits no air pollution, unlike conventional diesel engines. Dearman's liquid nitrogen engines have been designed to power transport refrigeration units (trus) that are used in trucks to keep food and other goods cool while in transit. Trus are typically powered by diesel engines but are not subject to the same emission standards as the main engine of ordinary vehicles and consequently, tru engines can emit six times more air pollution than the diesel engines that are used in ordinary vehicles. If Dearman's new engine were to replace the diesel engines that are currently used across Leeds in these trus, it is predicted that the groundbreaking technology could redu...