Stick to vacuum cleaners, Dyson - High-tech headphones won't solve urban pollution

It's a widely-held fallacy that our every problem can be solved if only we wait for the technological solution that's around the corner.

Take electric cars. Sure, they help reduce local air pollution and our reliance on oil, but the zeal for EVs overlooks their inability to address congestion, road harm, carcinogenic tyre and brake dust, as well as the cost of embodied pollution.

It's almost as if blind faith in tech allows the big problems to be kicked down the road. And in the same way that swapping engines can't solve the environmental, societal and health problems created by over dependency on cars, the air pollution crisis in our cities can't be brushed under the carpet with face masks - no matter how high-tech they are.

After six years of development, Dyson claim to have the answer to urban pollution - noise-cancelling headphones with an air purification feature. While we're certain the engineering is very clever, we can't help feeling there's something dystopian about using high-tech headgear to deal with the noise and air pollution caused traffic. In fact, they remind us of the headgear worn by the 'Machine-Person' character in the 1927 film, Metropolis.

Air pollution - the invisible danger

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Air pollution will not be solved with personal air purifiers - however high-tech.

In her book, Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution, Beth Gardiner writes: ““Nothing is as elemental, as essential to human life, as the air we breathe. Yet around the world, in rich countries and poor ones, it is quietly poisoning us.”

Check the air quality where you are now

The map at aqicn.org/map/europe provides daily updates on air quality around Europe. Air quality is rated as good (satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk), moderate (moderate health concern for a small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution), unhealthy for sensitive groups (general public unlikely to be affected), unhealthy (everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects), very unhealthy (health warnings of emergency conditions – entire population more likely to be affected) or hazardous (everyone may experience more serious health effects).

Given air pollution can be deadly, it is surprising how little public outrage exists. Particulate matter from car exhaust is so tiny that it can penetrates deep into lungs and bloodstream. And nitrogen dioxide exacerbates asthma – especially in children because they have faster breathing rates and lungs that are still developing.

As part of our film about road harm in all its forms, we spoke to Professor Stephen Holgate who is Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology and Honorary Consultant Physician within Medicine at the University of Southampton: "We know that here in the United Kingdom, for example, we have the highest prevalence of asthma in Europe and one of the major drivers of that of course is exposure to air pollution. The other thing that we understand more recently especially is that some of the pollutants get into the circulation and start increasing the risk of diabetes for example."

Noise pollution

Noise might be more easily detectable, but so inured have we become to the daily din that we may not recognise it as pollution at all. As part of our noise campaign we commissioned a survey of traffic noise in rural areas. Written by Lynn Sloman and her colleagues at the Transport for Quality of Life consultancy, it used qualitative research to discover the impact that the increase in rural traffic has on our quality of life in rural Britain.

Since then our nation has continued to lose areas of tranquillity. Noise is unpleasant. That should be enough of a reason to want to minimise disruptive environmental noise, but there are sleep-depriving, stress-inducing and health-damaging effects also to consider.

It's easy to assume that air pollution affects cyclists and pedestrians disproportionately. However, research by Leeds University found passengers in cars and buses spent longer in toxic air than cyclists. The point is that it affects us all - however we travel. Technological sticking plaster fixes are an unwelcome distraction from the fact we need to tackle air pollution at source.

The ethical choice

The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance , breakdown cover and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.

The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK's most ethical provider.

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