Airpollution
Friends of the Earth slam lack of action at council
Rutherglen is still home to some of Scotland’s most polluted streets, the Reformer can reveal.
The pollution monitoring station in the town, which is situated at the west end of Main Street, has suspected illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide.
Rutherglen is still home to some of Scotland’s most polluted streets, the Reformer can reveal.
The pollution monitoring station in the town, which is situated at the west end of Main Street, has suspected illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide.
With the annual average reading of 46 microgrammes per cubic metre, the town’s main road has an illegal limit of 46 according to the Friends of the Earth Scotland pollution station.
However, these results were eliminated from the charity’s list of most polluted streets which was released last month because there were uncertainties over the data following a sampling fault.
If they could have been verified, it would place Main Street as the third most polluted street in the nation behind Glasgow’s Hope Street and Edinburgh’s St John’s Road.
Rutherglen’s Farmeloan Road has also suspected illegal levels of pollution and currently sits at 41 microgrammes per cubic metre.
Emilia Hanna, air pollution campaigner for Friends of the Earth Scotland, explained: “Rutherglen potentially still has worrying levels of air pollution, with initial results showing high levels of nitrogen dioxide.
“The monitoring station at Rutherglen reported a fault, so there is a lack of certainty over the results. People in Rutherglen at the very least deserve to have good, high quality monitoring of the situation so that there is an understanding of how serious the problem is.
“South Lanarkshire still has three pollution zones, in Rutherglen, at the Whirlies Roundabout (East Kilbride), and in Lanark, where air pollution regularly breaches safety standards and puts public health at risk.
“Yet years after these pollution zones have been declared, South Lanarkshire Council still has not produced a plan to tackle the problems.
“It is a statutory requirement for councils to come up with proper air quality action plans which aim at reducing air pollution where pollution zones have been identified, so this delay is unacceptable.
“Air pollution from traffic fumes has a devastating impact on health, especially on children and people with existing health problems.”
Ms Hanna claims South Lanarkshire has been under an obligation to produce an air quality action plan to tackle air pollution since the declaration of the first pollution zone.
She also said it was the only local authority with designated pollution zones which still has not produced an air quality action plan.