Air quality training

Information on staff training for the Public Protection Team.

22 December 2021

Your request

1. Please confirm whether the Lambeth Council has arranged any external/in-house staff training for the Public Protection Team in respect of Particulate Matter 2.5, which is causing 'the most severe health effects', its origins, health effects and ways of dealing with PM2.5 complaints;

2. If the staff training has been arranged, how many of the Public Protection officers attended it?;

3. Does the Public Protection Team have any mobile (hand-held) air quality monitoring devices, which can measure a PM2.5 concentration on the site where an alleged nuisance of smoke is occurring?

4. If the Public Protection team is not using any devices for air quality monitoring, especially for PM2.5, then what type of measuring method/tool the Public Protection Team Officer is using on the affected site in order to measure levels of PM2.5 accurately and objectively?

Our response

  1. No training has been arranged
  2. N/A
  3. No
  4. Lambeth Council has installed a number of lightweight air quality monitors which monitor PM2.5 pollution levels. This is part of a small scale pilot with a view to scaling up monitoring capacity across the borough in 2022/23. Lambeth does not currently have a reference monitor for PM2.5. However, a PM2.5 analyser is scheduled to be installed at the Brixton Air Quality Monitoring Station in January 2022.