London breaches air pollution limits in first week of new year
Tue 12 January 2016
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Air pollution exceeded EU pollution limits in a part of London in the first week of 2016 according to reports. Putney High Street in West London breached annual limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas produced by diesel vehicles that has been linked to respiratory and heart problems.
Under EU rules, sites are only allowed to breach hourly limits of 200 micrograms of NO2 per cubic metre of air 18 times in a year.
The Guardian reported that Putney broke that limit for the 19th time early in the new year and that Chelsea and Kensington was expected to do the same later the same day. Oxford Street was also likely to have breached the limit.
The UK has been in breach of EU limits for nitrogen dioxide for the last five years and last spring was ordered by the supreme court to publish an action plan on how to tackle the major health crisis, following a challenge by environmental law group ClientEarth.
According to a recent study in Nature more people now die from air pollution than malaria and HIV combined. They include 1.4 million people a year in China and 650,000 in India. This compares with about 180,000 a year in Europe.
Note: The LowCVP and the Clean Air Alliance have joined forces on an initiative which aims to bring the climate change and air quality communities closer together and to help ensure that UK vehicle and transport fuel policy is most effectively oriented towards tackling these twin threats. The initiative will be launched at a Parliamentary Reception which follows a related seminar on Tuesday March 1.
More information here.
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