STREETS in many parts of Scotland continue to have unsafe and illegal levels of toxic pollution seven years after a legal deadline and despite a Government plan to comply with clean air obligations.
There are now a total of 38 pollution zones where air quality safety standards are regularly broken, up from 33 last year, according to new data from Friends of the Earth Scotland. Last year, new official pollution zones were declared in Linlithgow and Newton in West Lothian, Johnstone and Renfrew in Renfrewshire. Another, in Edinburgh’s Salamander Street comes into force later this month.
Traffic-derived air pollution, which is mainly composed of a combination of fine particles and toxic gases, has been linked with health conditions including cancer, allergies, asthma, strokes and heart attacks.
It is said to cause 2,500 early deaths in Scotland each year, and is second only to smoking in terms of its mortality impact. The top nine most-polluted streets for nitrogen dioxide in 2016 according to test results were Hope Street in Glasgow (65 microgrammes per cubic metre), St John’s Road in Edinburgh (49), Aberdeen’s Wellington Road (46), Dundee’s Seagate (46), Cambuslang Main Street (45), Aberdeen’s Union Street (43), Edinburgh’s Queensferry Road (42), Glasgow’s Dumbarton Road (42) and Atholl Street in Perth (40). The European Ambient Air Quality Directive’s legal limit is 40 and the deadline for compliance was January 1, 2010. The top seven most-polluted streets for particulate matter in 2016 according to the survey were Perth’s Atholl Street (21), Edinburgh’s Queensferry Road (20), Edinburgh’s Salamander Street (20), King Street in Aberdeen (19), Crieff High Street (19), Falkirk’s West Bridge Street (19) and Glasgow Road in Edinburgh (18).
Friends of the Earth Scotland air pollution campaigner Emilia Hanna said: “The Scottish Government and local authorities are not tackling this public health crisis with the seriousness and urgency required.”
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