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Stay switched on!

7 March 2000

How many of us think, when cars pull up at road junctions, that turning off the engine is a good idea for curbing roadside pollution? The Parish Council of Upper Poppleton, near York, certainly do - but is all that about to change?

Council members thought they had come up with a great plan for reducing pollution in this picturesque Yorkshire village. After many months of campaigning, they hope to get permission to erect road signs at the level crossing running through the centre of the village, reading "Please switch off your car engine when the crossing gates are closed."

However, Pat Smith, a village resident could well be the force of change! Pat has just been on a Women's Institute Science Seminar week in Oxford, sponsored by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) earlier this month, and she's come back with a few interesting facts.

"I learnt so much!" she says, "My ideas on many things that I thought had definite answers and which could not be questioned were proved to be wrong. The presentation by one of the UK's leading transport scientists, Dr Margaret Bell from Leeds University, produced the most surprising information of all - I never realised that turning your car on and off, for short stops, actually produces more pollution than letting it idle. I thought, like most other people, that no fumes were better than low fumes, when actually a greatly increased amount of emission is produced when the engine is re-started."

"Now, I have to go back and report my findings to the parish council and I shall not be very popular, especially as my husband is the Council Chairman!" concludes Pat.

"And don't think that because you are in a car that you are protected from pollution since pollution levels inside cars can be 15% higher than those outside."

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. The National Federation of Women's Institutes Millennium Science Conference "Air, Land and Water: Keeping it Clean" was co-sponsored by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Over 70 delegates from around the country attended the three-day workshop (21-24 February 2000) at the WI's Denman College, Marcham, near Abingdon. Delegates were selected on the basis of their proposals to cascade their newly acquired knowledge within their own WI branch and local communities.

2. NERC is the leading body in the UK for research, survey, monitoring and training in the environmental sciences. NERC funds research in universities and in its own Centres and Surveys. NERC trains scientists for the future - more than 3,000 postgraduate students have been funded by NERC over the last five years.

3. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is the largest of the UK's research councils. Its mission is to support the highest quality research and related postgraduate training in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC aims to advance knowledge and technology and provide trained engineers and scientists for the benefit of the United Kingdom and the quality of life of its citizens. It has the further role of promoting public understanding in engineering and physical sciences.

Press release: 04/00

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