Vocal Voices

There is a push to get schools to install "living walls" to help combat pollution. These are areas covered in plants that are able to absorb dangerous pollutants from the air such as nitrous oxide and small particulate matter (SPM).

This is what it has come to.

We are, literally, killing ourselves and something has to be done, but why stop at schools? A good living wall can reduce nitrous oxide by 40% and SPM by 60% and they can be created in no time and in many places, and they have been with us for centuries. Think of all those 'chocolate box' cottages covered in ivy and clematis, passiflora and Virginia creeper. They could be a cheap and cheerful way of helping to clean up city streets, and improve our health.

After Dunblane the local schools all erected steel fences with barbed tops - ugly, but thought necessary. One school decided to camouflage theirs with low shrubs and climbers. Many of the plants were donated by parents and the children got involved in "building" the wall. It is now established and gives a good shield from the main road.

If the will was there we could start today.

I think it's a great idea and we can all do our bit, even at home.

Some house plants like peace lilies are also recommended to help "clean" the air inside your home; we've had one for a couple of years now.

Leeds has one of the oldest pedestrianised areas in the UK, and one of the largest in Europe.

It has recently undergone an £11m refurbishment and is to be expanded. Trees and shrubs have been planted in the hardened areas and seating 'pods' surrounded by tubs of plants and flowers have been created. It is a much nicer and healthier place than the concrete jungle version of the 1970s, and that was well before its time.

Ossie, when I stopped smoking I also stopped using air fresheners and got a spider plant and a dragon tree. They seem to do a good job and even work on cooking smells.

Well our house is full of the stuff. Plus the garden. Thousands and thousands of € worth. Drives me mad. I live in the middle of the country with no major city closer than 40 miles.

I do, however, understand the issues for big cities. In Brent, where the apartment is, the air is hardly ideal. No chance of me putting any plants in it though...

Suff wrote:In Brent, where the apartment is, the air is hardly ideal. No chance of me putting any plants in it though...

You concerned that they might act like a miner's Canary?

Get out of there!