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What are the health impacts?

Air pollution is a hidden killer and it hits children, older people and the poorest hardest.

 

Air pollution costs lives and billions of pounds. It is one of the UK's biggest killers, causing 40,000 early deaths  in the UK every year. That’s more than obesity or alcohol. Dirty air leads to worsening asthma symptoms, heart disease and even lung cancer. Air pollution has even been associated with changes in the brain linked to dementia and can lead to children growing up with smaller lungs. Children who live or go to schools on main roads can have 10% less lung capacity by the time they are 10.

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The benefits of cleaner air would be shared by everybody: reduced traffic congestion, more liveable cities and towns, and fewer days off sick.

 

Cleaning up our air will also help in the fight against climate change, the biggest environmental problem we face.

What are the causes?

The biggest problem for air pollution is road traffic , and diesel is the worst of all. It is widely recognised that road traffic is the biggest problem for today’s air quality, and that diesel fuels are the worst of all, which is why we have to get the most polluting vehicles off the road.

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Road transport is the major source of the toxic gas nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air we breathe. Even the most recent, Euro 6, diesel cars emit more than 5 times as much nitrogen oxides (NOx) as Euro 6 petrol cars. Vehicles also produce tiny particles, known as particulate matter (PMs), that find their way deep into our lungs and some of them in to our bloodstream.

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We must tackle air pollution at source – and this principally means getting the most polluting vehicles off the road and reducing road traffic.

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You can see how different cars and light goods vehicles perform here: http://equaindex.com/equa-air-quality-index

What's the situation in Bristol?

Bristol City Council (BCC) has been told by central government to develop a plan to tackle illegal levels of air pollution in the city by the end of 2018. 

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The annual average levels of nitrogen dioxide are above legal limits across central areas of Bristol (some testing sites are over double the safe/legal limit). Emissions from diesel vehicles account for 96% of NOx in Bristol city centre. Bristol City Council declared city as an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) for exceedances of NO2 (since 2001 Bristol has had illegal levels of NO2 nitrogen dioxide) and on precautionary basis for PM10.

 

​Nearly 30% of Bristol residents do not have access to a car. In Lawrence Hill, one of the most polluted and economically deprived parts of Bristol, fewer than half of residents own a car. Bristol City Council declared city as an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) for exceedances of NO2 (Bristol has had illegal levels of NO2 nitrogen dioxide since 2001) and on precautionary basis for PM10. The World Health Organisation says there are no safe levels of NO2 and particulates.

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