Campaign groups are calling on the Government to do more to tackle ‘breathtaking’ air pollution levels
Car exhaust pollution (Image: Wikipedia)
Diesel exhaust fumes are causing the biggest health catastrophe since the Black Death, a campaign group has claimed, as new figures show air pollution limits for the whole year have been breached in just eight days in London.
European Union limits demand that maximum hourly nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations are not exceeded for more than 18 hours a year – yet Putney High Street, in west London, had recorded its 19th hour breaching the limits during Friday morning’s rush hour, the London Air Quality Network said.
Oxford Street, where legal limits for the toxic gas for the whole of 2015 were breached in just two days, has almost certainly broken the limit again but the monitoring equipment is currently being repaired. Campaigners say that the Government must do more to tackle air pollution which has been linked to respiratory and heart problems.
Simon Birkett, founder and director of campaign group Clean Air in London, said it was breathtaking that toxic air pollution in the capital had breached the legal limit for the whole calendar year within the first few days of 2016. Mr Birkett also called on all the candidates in the mayoral elections to pledge to ban diesel exhausts from the most polluted areas by 2020.
He said:
“Worse, several air pollution monitors have been vying for the dubious honour of recording the first officially monitored breach of the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) legal limit in the world in 2016.”
Read more: Independent