Almost 60 per cent of people in England are living in areas where levels of toxic air pollution exceeded legal limits last year, analysis of official figures has revealed.
Legal limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – a toxic gas that inflames airways in the human respiratory system – were broken in 142 local authorities in 2019, potentially affecting as many as 33 million people in total.
This includes groups particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, including 7 million children and 5.5 million people over 65 years old. The latter group is now at additional risk because of the coronavirus.
As the government grapples with the economic devastation caused by the pandemic, the prime minister has presented public infrastructure investment as one of the most important components of his post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan.
“Build back better; build back greener; build back faster,” Boris Johnson said at the end of June.
However, as well as £2bn allocated for cycling and walking – a figure that has been criticised as being inadequate – the government’s plans include £27bn for roads.
The vast majority of NO2 comes from road travel, according to the UK’s Air Pollution Information System. In total, about 2.2 million tonnes of NO2 is generated in the UK each year. Of this, about half is from motor vehicles, a quarter is from power stations, and the rest is attributable to other industrial and domestic sources.
Previous studies have found that those most affected by poor air quality are disproportionately people living in deprived areas – potentially leading to a disproportionate impact on people from minority ethnic groups, which in turn could be a factor in the higher rates of coronavirus deaths among those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Source: Independent