We look at what Cura Terrae are doing – and what you can do too – to achieve clean air and all the benefits it brings.
Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest air quality campaign, takes place on 19 June. The campaign estimates that exposure to air pollution leads to 29,000 to 43,000 adult deaths a year. To mark Clean Air Day this year, we’re sharing what Cura Terrae are doing to tackle air pollution, and what you can do too.
What is Clean Air Day?
With air pollution now the greatest environmental risk to public health, Clean Air Day highlights the importance of improving the air we breathe. Its goals include:
- Raising awareness about air quality and reaching new audiences with information about air pollution.
- Increasing public understanding of the issue and encouraging people to adopt pollution-reducing behaviours.
- Increasing and demonstrating support for air quality measures, giving decision-makers a mandate to implement necessary changes.
Clean Air Day is coordinated by Global Action Plan, an environmental charity that has led research, campaigns, and collective action on the climate and nature crises and people’s health for over thirty years.
What are Cura Terrae doing to promote clean air?
We help industry monitor their emissions
Almost 30% of particulate matter (PM) – regarded the most harmful air pollutant to human health – comes from industrial activity. Cura Terrae’s Emissions Testing team measure the pollutants facilities release from large industrial chimneys (“stacks”). This enables businesses to comply with key legislation such as the Industrial Emissions Directive, which sets challenging standards for pollution based on protecting public and environmental health. Our team are accredited to test significant air pollutants such as PM10/PM2.5, nitrogen oxides, and ammonia.
We provide air quality monitoring solutions
Enviro Technology (ET) provide instrumentation and services for the measurement of air pollutants across governmental, industrial, and academic sectors. Most recently, ET became official distributors of Palas GmbH, which means we now supply the Fidas® 200, a mainstay of the UK’s national air quality monitoring network. We’ll be helping the UK meet its legally-binding air quality targets and improve public and environmental health. We’re also keen to share our knowledge on all things air pollution monitoring – developed over four decades of ET, even taking our Smogmobile to visit schools on previous Clean Air Days.
We create green spaces that help to mitigate air pollution
In urban areas, trees and vegetation increase the surface area for deposition of air pollutants – reducing the amount in the air. One study estimated that increasing tree cover in Glasgow to 8% would reduce PM10 concentrations by 2%, while a bigger increase in the West Midlands, to 16.5%, could remove 110 tonnes of PM10 from the air per year. This spring, Cura Terrae Land & Nature’s Habitat and Ecology teams helped create 5 micro-forests in urban Greater London, while our Landscape Team published an article on biophilic design – the integration of green elements into our built surroundings in a thoughtful way.
We help businesses comply with air pollution standards
Facilities that release byproducts of their processes into the air usually need an environmental permit to do so. The permit will specify conditions that need to be met so that public and environmental health are protected. Our Environmental Management Services team help businesses apply for their environmental permits and control their emissions to air. The Environmental Training we offer also helps to promote a sense of social and environmental responsibility and increase business’ awareness of key issues such as air quality.
What you can do
Air quality affects everyone, and there are things all of us can do to make a difference:
- Visit Global Action Plan’s Clean Air Hub to find out more about air pollution and consider sharing what you learn – you could use resources from the 2025 Clean Air Day comms pack. There are also guides specifically tailored to communities, health workers, schools, businesses and other actors.
- A key focus of this year’s Clean Air Day campaign is recognising the important role the public play in calling on politicians to address air pollution. Global Action Plan have set up a form for you to write to your MP. They believe making active forms of travel, such as walking and cycling, safer and making public transport more accessible, affordable, and reliable should be political priorities.
- Use the Clean Air Planner to create your own personalised air pollution action plan. The actions might include:
- Walking on the side of the pavement that’s furthest away from the road to reduce inhalation of vehicle exhaust emissions. Global Action Plan write that “every metre matters”.
- Not lighting your open fire or wood burner if you don’t have to, e.g., if you have an alternative source of heating. If it’s the only option to heat your home, burn smokeless fuels, or dry wood in an approved appliance.
- Avoiding non-essential home deliveries to reduce the mileage of delivery vehicles. Consolidate your shopping so that only one delivery is necessary, or, if possible, walk or cycle to a click-and-collect location.
Global Action Plan also recommend investigating whether your organisation has a sustainable travel policy, and promoting it if it does or developing one if it doesn’t.
Clean air has multiple benefits
Air pollution is a major concern because of the effects it can have on our physical health. Long-term exposure can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases including stroke, asthma, and lung cancer, potentially reducing life expectancy.
This means that improving air quality will lead to fewer health difficulties and better quality of life for individuals, as well as reduced public healthcare costs. However, these aren’t the only benefits of cleaner air.
Air pollutants have been linked to hormonal and nerve cell dysregulation, and there are psychological impacts of living somewhere you feel is polluted and damaging to your health. Tackling air pollution can thus improve our mental wellbeing – and also academic performance in young people.
Areas where the air is clear and buildings are free of discolouration are more likely to attract economic opportunity and investment. Addressing air quality can lead to other societal outcomes too: air pollution is a justice issue, with some communities much more likely to experience dangerous air quality than others. Clean air for all will help to reduce these inequities.
Air pollution measures can also be quick climate-wins. This is because some pollutants, such as ozone, are also potent greenhouse gases which warm the atmosphere. However, because they’re also very short-lived, air quality interventions can have rapid climate benefits.
Read more about air quality in our other blogs:
- The Air Quality Stripes were created to show changes in air pollution over time.
- These students led their own campaigns after seeing the effects of air pollution in their communities.
- We looked at a statement by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health which said more must be done about air pollution.
