UK pollution deaths among highest in EU

AIR pollution claims more lives in Britain than in most other western European countries, a UN report warns.

Toxic emissions are responsible for an average of 25.7 deaths per 100,000 in the UK compared to just 0.4 in Sweden.

Our mortality rate is also twice as high as in the US and significantly worse than Brazil and Mexico.

Analysis by the World Health Organisation reveals that filthy air killed 6.5million people worldwide in 2012.

But mortality rates in the UK were far higher than in many other comparable countries in Europe and the rest of the world. Britain’s air was more deadly than in Spain ( 14.7 per 100,000 deaths), France (17.2) and the Netherlands (24). The figure was 12.1 in the US, 15.8 in Brazil and 23.5 in Mexico.

Earlier this month the Government published draft plans to tackle air pollution including reducing motorway speed limits to 60mph and offering cash incentives to scrap diesel cars.

But the proposals were branded a ‘cop-out’ by campaigners, who have called for the creation of clean air zones that ban polluting vehicles from urban areas.

Air pollution is estimated to cause 40,000 deaths in the UK annually and cost up to £20billion a year. Dr Penny Woods, of the British Lung Foundation, said: ‘In the UK, air pollution is a public health crisis hitting our most vulnerable the hardest – our children, people with a lung condition and the elderly.’

A Greenpeace UK spokesman said: ‘Britain is gasping for a breath of clean air.’

In the WHO’s report, the UK was ranked 15th out of 50 countries in Europe by mortality rate. Sweden was cleanest, followed by Finland and Iceland. The worst countries for toxic air included India, where there are 133.7 deaths for every 100,000.