Health risk of school run

DRIVING children to school exposes them to up to three times as much pollution as walking, MPs heard yesterday.

It also robs them of the chance to socialise and is fuelling the country’s obesity epidemic, an air quality expert warned.

Professor Stephen Holgate of Southampton University made the remarks to a Commons committee on air quality. He said drivers did not realise pollution is worse inside cars.

He said yesterday: ‘You are just venting the freshest, most toxic fumes coming from the tailpipe of the car in front, straight into your car ... It’s two to three times higher than walking in the street.

‘The parent who drives their child to school ... is actually poisoning their child more than the parent who walks or cycles.’