HONG KONG: Air pollution is responsible for early deaths of a whopping 52,500 people across the UK and in Scotland the estimated number of deaths is nearly twice than previously thought.
Friends of the Earth Scotland estimate that this could mean more than 3,500 total early deaths from air pollution in Scotland every year. Previously, only the official death toll from fine particles (PM2.5) was known (29,000 UK-wide, 2000 in Scotland).
This fresh figure, which Defra have based on initial discussions with the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), takes into account deaths from exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), which are understood to be 23,500 each year.
The figure was tucked away in a Defra consultation document for new Air Quality Plans, which the UK Government and Scotland have been required to produce after being chastised by the Supreme Court in April for ongoing dangerous levels of air pollution and breaking a 2010 deadline for safe air.
Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner Emilia Hanna said that the latest health evidence is truly shocking, hugely alarming and demonstrates that air pollution is a major public health disaster.
Calling the Scottish consultation on new Air Quality Plans as incomplete, vague, and lackluster, she called upon the government to deliver on the promise.
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