Dirty air ‘harmful as fags’

LIVING in polluted cities and towns is as harmful as smoking 150 cigarettes a year, a charity has warned.

Air pollution must be declared “a public health emergency”, says the British Heart Foundation.

Analysis has shown that people living in London’s Kensington and Chelsea, Newham, Islington and Westminster areas are the UK’s worst hit by air pollution, which raised the risk heart attacks and strokes.