Warning over air pollution levels

a pattern across Scotland. Air pollution from traffic has increased in many of our towns in 2019. West Lothian is no different.

“This puts residents at risk of serious health conditions like asthma, heart attacks, and strokes. Our vulnerable citizens, such as young children and the elderly, are at the most risk and must be better protected.

“If we don’t start prioritising greener transport over fossil fuelled cars, we’ll keep burning the earth and keep breathing in toxic fumes.

“Our councils need to make it easy as possible to travel on foot or by bike for short journeys, and we need an affordable, accountable public transport network to take cars off the road.”

A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “A number of factors can contribute to the level of pollutants found in the air but it is difficult to pinpoint one single factor as a main cause for change.

“The increases shown are marginal, and all sites are well within the statutory air quality objectives.

“Officers are awaiting the fully ratified data set for 2019 so it is too early to draw a full conclusion at this stage.

“A combination of cleaner vehicles, changing public habits and increased use of public transport and sustainable transport should help improve matters further and the council will continue to pursue a number of measures, tailored to each area to improve air quality.”

In Broxburn, there was a reading of 13.07249083 for PM10 in 2018 but by 2019 it had increased to 14.3696159122085, creeping ever closer to the Scottish annual statutory standard of 18 micrograms.

In Linlithgow, the reading was 10.9433863 in 2018 and had risen to 12.0241880146386 last year.

Again in Linlithgow the NO2 reading was 27.77571036 in 2018 but shot up in 2019 to 29.05080257, with the legal limit being 40 micrograms per cubic metre.

Newton had a reading of 17.39162366 in 2018 and by 2019 it had gone up to 18.32566287.

Enviromental Protection Scotland’s spokesperson, John Bynorth, said: “We would urge people to be cautious when using this information, natural variations occur in Scotland’s air quality which could affect the readings and mean it is not just down to road transport. This can be caused by unusual weather patterns and trans-boundary air pollution which can lead to sudden spikes in Particle Matter (PM10).

“Residents of West Lothian may remember the choking weather conditions of April 24 last year. This was caused by huge forest fires that burned in the Ukraine and Russia and which led to PM10 from the smoke being brought thousands of miles to Scotland by an unusually strong easterly wind. This caused spikes in the PM10 readings in West Lothian, as far west as Croy and in the north-east.

“Broadly speaking, Scotland has good air quality and the best thing that people can do to improve it further is - ditch the car, especially for short-trips. West Lothian has excellent public transport links and there’s no reason why people should be clogging up the streets of Broxburn and Linlithgow with their private vehicles.”