Glasgow has most polluted air in UK
SCOTLAND’S biggest city has the most polluted air in the UK, a landmark report reveals today.
Toxic fumes are killing people in nearly every major urban area in Britain, including Glasgow, the study has found.
An astonishing 43 of the UK’s largest towns and cities have air so dirty it breaches official safety guidelines.
As a result, an estimated 40,000 are dying early every year – with air pollution also causing 6million sick days.
The study, in The Lancet medical journal, said previous government support for diesel cars had been a ‘key driver’ in rising pollution.
Its authors warned that dirty air was a ‘lifetime threat’, damaging health ‘from cradle to grave’ and causing heart problems and lung disease.
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: ‘Air pollution is a silent and invisible killer.’
Major cities such as Glasgow, London, Leeds and Birmingham were listed
among the most polluted in the study, which involved 26 organisations – including the Royal College of Physicians.
Smaller places, such as the seaside towns of Eastbourne, in East Sussex, and Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, were also high on the list of those that breached World Health Organisation rules, along with tourist spots such as Oxford and Lea ming ton Spa, in Warwickshire.
The researchers analysed the impact of the climate and environmental factors on human health around the world. While they identified climate change as the biggest problem for most countries, for Britain, air pollution was the key environmental danger.
They said the problem dated back to the ‘pea souper’ smogs that blighted cities until coal- fired power stations were banned from urban areas in the 1950s.
Since then, the bulk of the harm has shifted to diesel emissions, they said, causing sick days and an estimated total social cost of £22.6billion per year.
Dr Toby Hillman, of the Royal College of Physicians, said: ‘ We know the effects of poor air quality run from cradle to grave. It’s a lifetime threat to human health.
‘The major shift has been from coal-fired powered station to diesel engines producing nitrous oxides and particular matter.
‘Diesel is particularly bad for this and unfortunately previous policies about encouraging diesel adoption have led to an increase in the amount of diesel-related emissions. Diesel is probably one of the key drivers for the reduction in air quality, particularly in metropolitan areas.’
Experts last night said the figures were alarming.
Jenny Bates, air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: ‘It cannot be acceptable that the most dangerous fine particles are above World Health Organisation recommended levels, resulting in early deaths in most of the UK’s large cities.’
The report assessed figures from the World Health Organisation’s 2016 air pollution database, which tracks tiny particles known as PM2.5 – sooty emissions which are a particular problem i n the exhausts of old diesel cars.
Medical experts are increasingly aware that these particles – so microscopic they are inhaled deep into the lungs – increase the risk of asthma, dementia, heart disease and premature birth.
Out of 50 UK cities and towns listed in the database, 43 breached the recommended limit of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
Glasgow and Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire, emerged as the most polluted areas, with average PM2.5 concentrations of 16.
London, Leeds and Salford were at 15, as were Eastbourne and Southampton.
Oxford, Cardiff and Birmingham were given scores of 14 and Norwich and Leamington Spa were rated at 13. Prestonpans was at 12.
Dr Hillman said: ‘ We know that high exposures in early life have a major effect on lung and cognitive development throughout an individual’s life – that is why it is the Govern- ment’s duty to improve the air we breathe and to ensure that people across the UK are not exposed to such a preventable cause of death and illness.’
Dr Woods added: ‘This study reveals the tragic reality that the most polluted areas are exactly where our most vulnerable are – schools, hospitals and clinics.
‘The extent of the public health emergency we are facing demands nothing less than urgent action to protect our lung health. The Government should act immediately by using the Budget to end incentives to buy diesel vehicles, and finally commit to a new clean air act.’
Diesel cars were promoted as an environmentally-friendly choice because they emit less carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas which causes global warming.
Tony Blair’s Labour government, in particular, used generous tax breaks to persuade drivers to buy them.
A summary of the report – entitled a ‘briefing for UK policymakers’ – called for the expansion of Clean Air Zones nationwide and wider measures such as a levy on drivers of diesel cars.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already outlined plans for low emission zones in four Scottish cities – with feasibility studies carried out already in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Comment – Page 16
‘Duty to improve air we breathe’