Expert advice provided on air quality at
Heathrow Airport
Prof. Duncan Laxen was invited to attend the Environment Committee meeting of the London Assembly as an air quality expert, when the Committee held a hearing on Heathrow Airport on 20 October. This drew on the experience Prof. Laxen has accumulated over the last two decades in addressing air quality at Heathrow, including his presentation of evidence at the Terminal 5 public inquiry, and his chairing of a DfT panel addressing the best way to use monitoring data to model air quality at Heathrow.
The committee heard from BAA, the airport operators, and from the London Borough of Hounslow. Prof. Laxen emphasised that the mitigation measures set out in the BAA presentation were all along the right lines, but the issue was the timely delivery of these measures. He also noted that road traffic in the area was a significant cause of the high concentrations, and said that BAA should look to incentivise the use of low emission vehicles by people coming to the airport. The whole meeting was webcast and can be accessed at: Press releases London Assembly