The benefits of a health impact assessment in relation to fuel poverty: assessing Luton's affordable warmth strategy and the need for a national strategy

The links between fuel poverty and poor health are well documented, yet there is no statutory requirement on local authorities to develop fuel poverty strategies, which tend to be patchy nationally and differ substantially in quality. Fuel poverty starts from the perspective of income, even though interventions can improve health. The current public health agenda calls for more partnership-based, cost-effective strategies based on sound evidence. Fuel poverty represents a key area where there is currently little local evidence quantifying and qualifying health gain arising from strategic interventions. As a result, this initial study sought to apply the principles of a health impact assessment to Luton’s Affordable Warmth Strategy, exploring the potential to identify health impact arising – as a baseline for future research – in the context of the public health agenda. A national strategy would help ensure the promotion of targeted fuel poverty strategies.

The numerical simulation of fire spread within a compartment using an integrated gas and solid phase combustion model

An integrated fire spread model is presented in this study including several sub-models representing different phenomena of gaseous and solid combustion. The integrated model comprises of the following sub-models: a gaseous combustion model, a thermal radiation model that includes the effects of soot, and a pyrolysis model for charring combustible solids. The interaction of the gaseous and solid phases are linked together through the boundary conditions of the governing equations for the flow domain and the solid region respectively. The integrated model is used to simulate a fire spread experiment conducted in a half-scale test compartment. Good qualitative and reasonable quantitative agreement is achieved between the experiment and numerical predictions.

Modelling high particulate matter and ozone episodes in the Trans-Manche region

There is concern in the Cross-Channel region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) and Kent (Great Britain), regarding the extent of atmospheric pollution detected in the area from emitted gaseous (VOC, NOx, S02)and particulate substances. In particular, the air quality of the Cross-Channel or "Trans-Manche" region is highly affected by the heavily industrial area of Dunkerque, in addition to transportation sources linked to cross-channel traffic in Kent and Calais, posing threats to the environment and human health. In the framework of the cross-border EU Interreg IIIA activity, the joint Anglo-French project, ATTMA, has been commissioned to study Aerosol Transport in the Trans-Manche Atmosphere. Using ground monitoring data from UK and French networks and with the assistance of satellite images the project aims to determine dispersion patterns. and identify sources responsible for the pollutants. The findings of this study will increase awareness and have a bearing on future air quality policy in the region. Public interest is evident by the presence of local authorities on both sides of the English Channel as collaborators. The research is based on pollution transport simulations using (a) Lagrangian Particle Dispersion (LPD) models, (b) an Eulerian Receptor Based model. This paper is concerned with part (a), the LPD Models. Lagrangian Particle Dispersion (LPD) models are often used to numerically simulate the dispersion of a passive tracer in the planetary boundary layer by calculating the Lagrangian trajectories of thousands of notional particles. In this contribution, the project investigated the use of two widely used particle dispersion models: the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and the model FLEXPART. In both models forward tracking and inverse (or·. receptor-based) modes are possible. Certain distinct pollution episodes have been selected from the monitor database EXPER/PF and from UK monitoring stations, and their likely trajectory predicted using prevailing weather data. Global meteorological datasets were downloaded from the ECMWF MARS archive. Part of the difficulty in identifying pollution sources arises from the fact that much of the pollution outside the monitoring area. For example heightened particulate concentrations are to originate from sand storms in the Sahara, or volcanic activity in Iceland or the Caribbean work identifies such long range influences. The output of the simulations shows that there are notable differences between the formulations of and Hysplit, although both models used the same meteorological data and source input, suggesting that the identification of the primary emissions during air pollution episodes may be rather uncertain.