Three members of eco-activst group Climate Rush stencilled a message to Boris Johnson on the pavement outside his London home at 7.30am this morning. The message, made of soot glued to the floor, read ‘this is not a solution’. The soot was collected from the sides of London’s busiest roads.

The action was a response to reports that Mayor Johnson has commissioned a fleet of adapted gritting lorries to spray adhesive to London’s most polluted roads, gluing particles of soot to the ground.[1]

Air pollution on London’s most congested roads regularly breaches EU legal limits on air quality[2] and are often twice the World Health Organisations safe limit.[3] 29,000 people die prematurely every year in the UK because of air pollution - including over 4000 Londoners - more than from road accidents, obesity or passive smoking.[4]

Boris Johnson and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are jointly responsible for meeting air quality rules in London.

A spokesperson for Climate Rush, said “Boris Johnson thinks gluing pollution to the roads is a good enough solution to the 4000 deaths it causes every year in London. We’ve glued soot to his street to show how ridiculous this is - the pollution is still there and is still being pumped out every day. We want to remind Boris that this health epidemic will be solved through reducing the number of vehicles on our roads, investing in safer cycling infrastructure, and lowering our prohibitive public transport fares - not with glue.”

The graffiti is part of Climate Rush’s campaign for cleaner air in London. They are organising a mass demonstration for better air quality, called Spring Clean, on Thursday 19th April.

ENDS

For photographs and interviews please email [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITOR

Climate Rush will be creating London’s first true clean air zone on the 19^th of April at 6pm, meeting outside DEFRA in Smith Square. More information can be found athttp://www.climaterush.co.uk/springclean

Tags: Activism, air pollution, Boris, Climate Change, climate rush, environmental graffiti, graffiti

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