The ‘Smogware’ tea set, which is glazed with toxic air particles, illustrates the harmful pollution Glasgow residents breathe in every day. To collect the particles, potter Ruth Impey and students from the City of Glasgow College went to some of the busiest streets in the city. Ruth Impey has created the tableware in partnership with the Smogware team in Rotterdam and students from the City of Glasgow College. The tea set was cast from moulds created from a Victorian tea set previously made in the city.
Smogware designers Iris de Kievith and Annemarie Piscaer found a way to harvest fine dust and use it as glaze for ceramics, with Glasgow just one of many cities round the world that have taken part.
The project aims to highlight the problem of air pollution in the city, which is x4.5 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Joseph Carter, Head of Asthma + Lung UK Scotland said:
“Air pollution is causing new lung conditions like asthma and worsening existing ones such as COPD. With 1 in 5 Scots developing a lung condition like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in their lifetime, for them, it can leave them fighting for breath.
“These polluting particles are largely invisible to the naked eye, but this project will help turn the invisible, visible, helping to shine a spotlight on what is undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental threats to public health.”
Potter Ruth Impey said:
"It has been amazing to draw on Glasgow’s industrial pottery history to visualise current air pollution in the city.
“This set was first produced in the 1860’s in Bell’s Pottery. Glasgow’s largest pottery factories were situated along the Forth and Clyde canal where the M8 now provides the main transport artery in and out of Glasgow, echoing the pollution produced in the coal fired bottle kilns that lined the canal.
“The set therefore references both past and present air pollution levels and it was thrilling to make the first new mould in 160 years to create the Glasgow Smogware set."
Councillor Angus Millar, Glasgow City Council Convener for Climate and Transport said:
“This project brings to life the impact of air pollution on human health - with poor air quality disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable in our society.
“Glasgow has made good progress in tackling air pollution in recent years, with the first phase of our Low Emission Zone tackling pollution in the city’s bus fleet, and the milestone rollout of LEZ standards to all types of vehicles earlier this month. But we still have stubbornly high levels of air pollution, particularly in the city centre, which is actively harming Glaswegians’ health, contributing to hundreds of deaths a year and creating and exacerbating health inequalities.
“It’s vitally important that we continue to take action on air pollution in the city, and this project helps to bring this issue into sharp focus.”
The Smogware set will be used at a tea party at the City Chambers on 15th June, Clean Air Day. The aim is to raise awareness of air pollution in the city as the biggest environmental threat to human health, and to promote solutions such as active travel and an expansion of the LEZ to local decision makers.
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