Revealed: London’s top 10 worst polluted primary schools in one borough

The capital’s top 10 worst polluted primary schools are all in one east London borough, shock data from a climate charity has revealed.

New City Primary School in Plaistow, Newham, tops an air pollution ranking of ultra fine particulate matter - microscopic polluting droplets such as carbon, nitrates, and mineral dust.

These can pass through the lungs, into the bloodstream, and into your organs.

According to Friends of the Earth (FoE) who supplied the data, this is leaving pupils at risk of diseases such as asthma, COPD, coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.

The school, on Tunmarsh Lane, is in the 95th national percentile for pollution and levels exceed three World Health Organisation (WHO) limits on PM2.5, PM10 and NO2, according to air quality tracker website AddressPollution.Org.

While it’s nearly as bad at nine other primary schools in the borough.

It comes as the charity also revealed that people of colour are far more likely to live in high pollution areas.

While activists who oppose the construction of the Silvertown tunnel in Newham have called on the mayor to take into account the impact the build will have on air quality data.

Campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, founded the Ella Roberta Foundation after her nine-year-old daughter died in 2013 from a severe asthma attack contributed to by pollution.

She said: “This latest data is shocking, but unsurprising. It re-emphasises the urgency with which our country, and London particularly, needs action on air pollution.”

She added: “Everyone deserves a right to breathe clean air, particularly children, who are worst impacted as their lungs are still developing. Liz Truss needs to tackle this as a matter of urgency.

“This is something we need to see by the end of October, when the new targets must be set - and currently, the government’s ambitions fall well short of the latest WHO guidelines.

“Not only is a more ambitious target achievable by 2030, it’s vital, so in future no child has to suffer like my daughter did.”

The worst affected Newham schools are: New City Primary School; Roman Road Primary School; St Michael’s Catholic Primary School; Hartley Primary School; Brampton Primary School; Central Park Primary School; Cleves Primary School; St Edward’s Catholic Primary School; Kaizen Primary School; and Tollgate Primary School.

And Jenny Bates, from FoE, said: “It’s a scandal that more than a million children and young people in England live in areas where average air pollution levels are twice WHO guidelines for either or both of two of the deadliest pollutants.

“Millions of people are suffering the effects of living in the most polluted neighbourhoods – with the most deprived communities and people of colour the hardest hit.

“The new prime minister must get to grips with this public health emergency, which kills tens of thousands of people prematurely every year, and costs the economy billions of pounds annually, with a package of measures to clean up our air, including cutting car use.”

Mayor Sadiq Khan has been contacted for comment.