New evidence shows air pollution may be prematurely ending the lives of 60,000 people a year and in response Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson has rebuked the Mayor’s choice to spend £28 billion on London roads, saying the city “desperately needs clean, efficient ways of getting around.”
Scientists are to warn the government that air pollution may be to blame for up to 60,000 early deaths each year around the UK. The figure has emerged from analysis of the impact of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas emitted mainly by diesel engines whose effects are not included in the official 29,000 annual deaths currently blamed on air pollution.
Smog in London, as seen from Primrose Hill. Photograph courtesy of Luton Anderson.
London failed to meet the legal deadline for reducing air pollution by 2010 and is unlikely to meet it until after 2030 unless further action is taken. However, the Mayor of London is planning to spend £28 billion building and widening roads in London. He expects traffic will rise rapidly.
Darren commented, “This Mayor’s costly obsession with new roads will increase traffic and pollution through-out London. As we know more about the health impacts of air pollution, there is less and less justification for adding to that pollution by laying more tarmac.”
“The Mayor is threatening to send London hurtling back to a 1970s vision of a car-dominated future. Tunnelling, bridging, lane-widening and road-building will devour London’s transport budget. This city desperately needs clean, efficient ways of getting around such as new rail links, trams schemes, better bus services and proper cycle routes. This is what we need to be investing in, not more roads.”