Since 2006 I had perceived the air visibly getting greyer on the rare occasions I take the Liverpool Street train, but had dismissed it as my own prejudices having moved away from the capital to a less crowded part of the country – until seeing this report today I had no idea things were that bad!
The City of London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe after monitoring equipment recorded dangerous levels of minute particles for the 36th time this year. Under EU rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 “bad air” days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.
The breaching of the EU levels after just six months will embarrass the government, which was sent a final warning only three weeks ago from the European commission to improve air quality. Many other places in central London are close to the limit and can be expected to break the law within weeks.
The government has applied to Europe for a time extension until 2011 to comply with daily particulate pollution from traffic, but is not certain to be granted it because it has been flouting EU air quality laws since 2005 and is perceived by the environment commissioner Janez Potočnik to have done little to address the problem.
London air pollution ‘worst in Europe’ | Environment | The Guardian
