Poisonous air pollution exceeds legal threshold at 800 roadsides across Britain

Study reveals spread of exhaust chemical thought to have contributed to the death of a nine-year-old

POISONOUS air pollution exceeded legal thresholds on 800 major roadsides in the UK, Defra data reveal, after a landmark court victory blamed toxic air for a young girl’s death.

Levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide, the exhaust chemical thought to have contributed to the fatal illness of nine-yearold Ella Adoo-kissi-debrah, exceeded legal limits in 815 roadside spots across the UK last year, Daily Telegraph analysis found.

EU limits, which the UK is legally bound to uphold, require the annual average levels of nitrogen dioxide to stay below 40 micrograms per cubic metre, the level recommended by the World Health Organisation to protect people’s health.

While the worst- offending areas were busy roads in London, the list of sites spanned the country, covering walking and cycling routes, residential areas, and cities and towns including Liverpool, Glasgow, Stockport, Cardiff and Bournemouth.

Levels also exceeded legal limits in another 94 areas away from roadsides, all of them in central London, according to the data from Defra’s Pollution Climate Mapping model.

In a decision published on Wednesday, Inner London coroner Philip Barlow said that during Ella’s life there was a “recognised failure to reduce the level of NO2 to within limits set by EU and domestic law which possibly contributed to her death”.

Nitrogen dioxide levels have fallen over the past decade, a shift that Defra attributes to tighter emissions standards, but the UK is still in breach of the law. The inquest into Ella’s death heard that her family lived just 80ft from the South Circular, a busy London road that cuts through residential neighbourhoods in boroughs including Lewisham and Greenwich, and that she was exposed to illegal levels of air pollution every year of her life.

Katie Nield, of environmental law charity Clientearth, said that the Defra data did not provide a complete picture, suggesting the true numbers are even higher. Her analysis found that the measurements covered just 3 per cent of the UK road network and 25 per cent of the major road network.

She said the evidence heard in Ella’s case could be translatable to cases across the country.

“What this shows is that there’s a possibility of making this link in a court of law for the many other people who suffer as a result of breathing dirty air.”

Sarah Macfadyen, head of policy at Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said the data needed to be more transparent to allow people to make decisions about where they chose to live and travel.