Children are amongst those most vulnerable to the impacts of poor air quality. Bradford has one of the youngest populations in the UK with many of Bradford’s children living in deprived areas close to major roads. In many cases these same children go to school in polluted areas or have to pass through them on their way to school.
Research undertaken by Born in Bradford (BiB) has found that
Reducing exposure of children to air pollution is key to improving health outcomes in the district. Health Inequalities and life expectancy in Bradford report (PDF)
More information on air pollution and health is available on our webpage.
Bradford Council has several schemes in place to reduce exposure to air pollution near schools and to educate children, parents and staff about the impacts of air pollution and how to reduce it.
The Bradford Clean Air Schools Programme (CASP) is a Bradford Council initiative funded by the Bradford Clean Air Zone (CAZ). Reductions in pollution outside schools are already being delivered by the CAZ, especially at those located next to busy main roads. The CASP seeks to further improve air quality at schools by providing targeted funding direct to schools to help them implement bespoke emission and exposure reduction measures ensuring schools become cleaner, healthier places for Bradford’s children.
Find out more about the Clean Air Schools Grants
Some schools in Bradford have recently introduced School Streets schemes which restrict vehicle access near to the school during the busy times when children are dropped off and picked up. The aim is to reduce exposure to air pollutants and improve safety outside participating schools. We are currently undertaking air pollution monitoring to help monitor the impact of some of the school street schemes.
Find out more about School Streets.
The BiB breathes team are working with schools across the district to train primary school-age pupils to monitor pollution on their journey to and from school and to find ways of helping families to reduce their exposure.
BiB schools monitoring project video
IVE are a creative education agency that design and deliver programmes to develop people’s creativity. Workshop have been held in a number of Bradford Schools to encourage Bradford’s children to come up with solutions to tackle pollution problems in Bradford. The winning ideas from individual schools go through to a grand final where pupils’ ideas are judged for originality, applicability and affordability by a panel of industry experts. IVE’s Applied Creativity Labs ran over several weeks to equip students with the creative behaviours and thinking skills they need to develop innovative solutions to real world challenges.
This year’s winners were IQRA Primary Academy school with their ‘Thinking Eco-Nomically' a social media information campaign that will include popular media channels, videos and stories to create awareness about health problems with air pollution. Other great ideas that were proposed during the event were The Extraordinary Pollution Defeaters; Project Worm; Motor Scoot; The Carbon Trike and air pollution art installations.
You can visit the IQRA Primary Academy social media campaign here: Thinking Eco Nomically.
