The Darnall Environment and Health Audit
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DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT A REVIEW BY SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL AND SHEFFIELD HEALTH, 2001 South East Sheffield East End Quality Primary Care Trust of life Initiative DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT CONTENTS Chapter Page 1 Introduction . 1 2 Air quality . 4 3 Noise . 10 4 Land use and planning . 13 5 Contaminated land in the Darnall area . 15 6 Local facilities and services, parks and green spaces . 18 7 Transport . 22 8 Water quality . 25 9 Industrial processes authorised under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act . 28 10 Environmental Quality . 29 11 Housing . 31 12 Health data . 33 13 Conclusions and Next Steps . 40 Tables 1 Community air quality monitoring results . 5 2 Respiratory health data for Darnall . 7 3 Quantified health impact of air pollution in Darnall and Tinsley . 8 4 Darnall and Tinsley noise measurements 2000 . 11 5 Main Development Sites in Darnall . 14 6 Remediated land and current use . 15 7 Known / likely contaminated sites . 16 8 AADT Traffic Flows for Selected Roads in the Darnall area . 23 9 GQA chemical grading for rivers and canals . 25 10 Groundwater and surface water abstractions in the Darnall area . 26 11 Requests for pest services in Darnall . 29 12 Other requests for services in Darnall . 29 13 Housing tenure in Darnall and Sheffield . 31 14 Incidence of long-term limiting illness in Darnall . 33 15 Comparison of hospital admissions for respiratory disease, asthma and coronary heart disease for Sheffield City and Darnall Primary Care Groups (1997/98) . 34 16 Impairments of Darnall residents recorded by Sheffield City Council’s Housing Survey . 38 DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT Figures Page 1 Map of Darnall Action Area . 3 2 Tinsley community air quality monitoring results 1998-2001, NO2 fortnightly averages . 6 3 Darnall community air quality monitoring results 1999-2001, NO2 fortnightly averages . 6 4 Darnall residents’ satisfaction with their present accommodation . 32 5 Darnall residents’ feelings about the area . 32 6 Hospital Admission Trends 1994-98 Darnall PCGs . 34 7 Standardised Mortality Trends 1981-1998 all causes below age 75 . 35 8 Standardised Mortality Trends 1981-1998 coronary heart disease . 36 9 Standardised Mortality Trends 1981-1998 stroke . 36 10 Standardised Mortality Trends 1981-1998 circulatory disease . 37 11 Standardised Mortality Trends 1981-1998 suicide and undetermined cause of death . 37 Appendix 1 Air Quality A1.1 The Government’s Air Quality Objectives . 41 A1.2 Results of DEFRA’s (DETR’s) Air Quality Monitoring Unit at Tinsley 1990-2000 42 A1.3 Short and long term health effects of air pollution . 42 A1.4 Sheffield M1 Air Quality Action Zone . 43 Appendix 2 Noise A2.1 Noise Measurements and Exposure Category Boundaries . 44 A2.2 World Health Organisation guideline values for community noise in specific environments . 46 Appendix 3 Industrial Processes Authorised under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 A3.1 Part B Processes operating in the area . 47 A3.2 Part A Processes operating in the area . 48 A3.3 Mass emissions to air from Part A processes . 48 Appendix 4 Index of Local Deprivation (ILD) A4.1 Index of Local Deprivation for Ennumeration Districts in Darnall and Tinsley . 49 DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT 1. INTRODUCTION This document has been produced jointly by Sheffield Health and Sheffield City Council’s Environmental Protection Service in response to community concerns regarding the state of the local environment in Darnall and its affect on health. The approach has been to draw together environmental data from a variety of sources as the basis for an objective assessment of environmental quality. Using established guidance, the results of research, and recognised methods of health impact assessment the environmental data has been interpreted in terms of its likely affect on human health. The aims of the audit are therefore:- 1) to review the current state of the environment in Darnall and its effect on the health and well being of Darnall residents, 2) to identify the gaps in knowledge and information relating to the environment and health, 3) to examine the links between environment and health. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information given in this report is reliable, this has been gathered from a variety of sources1. We cannot therefore guarantee the accuracy of data in the report. Official statistics are generally reported on a ward basis, and therefore include Tinsley, whilst community research is more focused on Darnall itself. This document will be reported to the Darnall Area Panel and Sheffield City Council. A summary of the audit will be widely circulated throughout Darnall and the full document will be made available to Darnall, Handsworth and Tinsley Forums, the Darnall Well Being Group, the Health and Regeneration Group and, on request, to members of the public. It is the intention that the audit will form the basis of the development of a local area action plan. This process will require a collaborative approach between the local community, the Council, the health community, the private sector, and other organisations which all have an influence on the environment and health of Darnall residents. Darnall Action Area Darnall has seen a major transformation of the immediate area. The Lower Don Valley has attracted new manufacturing industry, office employment, retail, leisure and sports facilities. Meadowhall, now 10 years old, is a major out-of-town shopping and leisure centre which 1 Sources include one-to-one interviews carried out in the Darnall area from Feb-May 2000 by the East End Quality of Life Initiative, EEQOL’s postal survey in Nov-Dec 2000, the New Deal for Communities Neighbourhood Profile of Darnall, published in January 2000, Sheffield TEC’s 1999 Priority 5 Community Audit, Sheffield Health Information & Research SHAIPS1 & 2 surveys (1994 & 2001) and LAPIS5, 1999, the OPCS 1991 Census, Sheffield City Council Housing Survey 1999-2000, and the “On Track” Delivery Programme. 1 DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT attracts 30 million visitors per year, with an average of 150,000 cars per week using the centre. This, with Meadowhall Retail Park and the Centertainment complex, Sheffield Arena, and Don Valley Stadium, attract considerable amounts of traffic. Major names like Abbey National, Yorkshire Cable, Dixons and Freemans have offices in the valley and the area provides over a quarter of the jobs in the Sheffield travel-to-work area. This considerable regeneration has increased traffic-related pollution in many of the residential areas. The Darnall and Tinsley Action Plan produced by Darnall and Tinsley Forums (1997) noted: “that local employers employed few local people and smaller employers employ a lower proportion of local people.” This suggests that the local community disproportionately suffers the negative effects of the regeneration of the Lower Don Valley. Population profile The Darnall area has one of the highest proportions of people from minority ethnic origins of any ward in the city. 30 per cent of residents are from black and minority ethnic communities, of which approximately a fifth are of Pakistani origin. The area also has the largest area of Bangladeshi settlement in the city, making up 7 per cent of the local population. There are also smaller numbers of people of Somali and Yemeni origin. The area is also very diverse in terms of socio-economic conditions. Areas of high minority ethnic settlement and social housing or pre-war terraced owner occupied and private rented housing correlate with higher levels of deprivation, compared with areas of low minority ethnic settlement and inter-war/post-war owner occupied semi-detached housing (see Index of Local Deprivation, Appendix 4). Darnall ward, as opposed to the City Council’s Darnall Action Area) includes some relatively affluent neighbourhoods into and beyond Handsworth to the east, as well as excluding sections of the more deprived Castle ward (Kettlebridge Polling District) just to the south of Staniforth Road. As a consequence ward based data under-represents the social and economic problems of the area and has tended to exclude ‘Darnall’ from high priority consideration within the city (Darnall and Tinsley On Track Programme 2000-03: Delivery Plan, 2000). 2 DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT Figure 1: Map of Darnall Action Area 3 DARNALL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH AUDIT 2. AIR QUALITY National context In 1997 the Government launched its National Air Quality Strategy which included a list of pollutants that the Government wishes to control to protect health. Now, for each pollutant an objective, with a target date has been set (see table A1.1 in Appendix 1). The objectives were drawn up on the basis of the Government’s judgement of costs, benefits, and technical feasibility of achieving the standards by their objective dates. To begin the process of managing air quality on a local scale, local authorities were required to undertake a process of review and assessment of air quality within their areas. The purpose of this review and assessment is to determine whether the objectives will be, or are likely to be exceeded by the set date. The review and assessment carried out by Sheffield City Council’s Environmental Protection Service has identified two areas of the city where levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are likely to exceed the annual objective of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre (µgm3) by 2005 and as a consequence the Authority declared two Air Quality Management Areas, now designated as Air Action Zones. One of these Air Action Zones centres on an area of Darnall around Junction 34 of the M1 motorway (see Appendix A1.4). In consultation with other agencies, business, and local communities the Council is now required to develop an Air Quality Action Plan, the aim being to achieve the annual NO2 objective within the area by the year 2005.