As the weather has been colder this week, we have had some parental concerns with regards to parents leaving their cars idling at drop off. Here is some useful information:

The fumes released from idling vehicles contribute to air pollution.

Air pollution in the UK has improved in recent years, but it’s still at harmful levels for our health. There are small steps we can take to change this, and according to the World Health Organization, reducing emissions from vehicles could prevent 2.4 million premature deaths from air pollution every year by 2030.

But everyone can also make a real difference by turning off car engines when stationary for more than 10 seconds. If a vehicle has a ‘stop-start’ system fitted, it will automatically switch off the engine when stationary and restart it as soon as the accelerator is pressed. Manufacturers allow this feature to be manually switched off, but we encourage drivers to leave it on.

Reasons to stop idling

• It improves air quality. Breathing in air pollution during our lifetime has been linked to a wide range of health problems, including lung and heart disease, stroke and cancer.
• It helps the environment by reducing CO2 emissions. A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
• Idling cars can be an obstruction, with families needing to walk around cars with engines running.
• Recent research shows that 60% of parents are worried about the effect of air pollution on their children’s health, while 2,000 schools and nurseries are in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution.
• Toxic air disproportionately impacts children from the moment they’re conceived as their bodies are still growing and going through periods of critical development.
• Children also tend to spend more time outside, where concentrations of air pollution from traffic are generally higher. When children are walking or in a pushchair, they are often at the height of vehicle exhausts meaning that they breathe in higher concentrations of pollutants.
• Air pollution can worsen existing health inequalities. People living in the poorest areas are often the most exposed to pollution, so exposure to toxic air can reinforce

Please consider our children and environment by switching off your idling engines.

Thank you in advance for your support, working together we can improve things for our children and the environment.