Breathing in polluted air on busy roads is as harmful as passively smoking 10 cigarettes a day, new research has found.
Dutch scientists compared the effects of smoking with those of living near a busy road, looking at increased risks of heart disease, premature birth, breathing problems, and lung cancer.
The researchers, from the Public Health Service of Amsterdam, found that living next to a dual carriageway was as harmful as being exposed to second-hand smoke from ten cigarettes a day.
Writing in the Journal of Environmental Research, they revealed that traffic calming measures to remove half the cars from busy roads resulted in significant reductions to health risks.
The drop in pollution had the same effects as avoiding four cigarettes a day, the researchers found. One of the researchers, Saskia van der Zee, said that comparing the effects of pollution to passive smoking would make it easier for politicians and the public to understand the risks.
“We thought that passive smoking would be easier to understand,” she told The Times. “You don’t want your neighbours to come into your house and smoke three cigarettes every day. They have much the same effect on health, but it’s much easier to have a smoking ban than to have an air-pollution ban.”
The researchers also found that living by a steel factory was equivalent to being exposed to smoke from three cigarettes a day. Earlier this week, doctors warned that Britain is facing a major health emergency unless diesel cars are taken off the roads.
Fumes and toxins from diesel cars are already contributing to smog which has been linked to the deaths of 40,000 people a year. But with the UK government failing to get a grip on illegal levels of pollution in major cities that number could spiral, experts warned.
Health charities, medical leaders and environmental groups have called for a new law to rival Anthony Eden’s Clean Air Act, which 60 years ago ended the ‘pea souper’ smogs that had blighted cities until 1956. That legislation forced an end to coal power stations in towns and cities.
Charities have called for a modern Clean Air Act to bring pollution under control, and a scrappage scheme to encourage drivers to abandon diesel cars.
Separately, more than 300 doctors in the Doctors against Diesel group have written to Theresa May, calling for a diesel reduction initiative to reduce the impacts of pollutants including nitrogen dioxide and soot.
Professor John Middleton, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said, “It is time for diesel to be recognised as the health emergency that it is. Diesel is the primary source of nitrogen dioxide in urban areas and is linked to health effects that begin before birth and extend throughout life, from childhood lung development and asthma, to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and dementia.”
Ownership of diesel cars has more than trebled in the last 15 years – driven by misguided government tax incentives that identified diesel as a ‘green’ fuel. Almost 1.3million new diesels were registered last year, 48 percent of all car purchases, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Evidence is growing about the health impacts of nitrogen dioxide and the tiny particles of soot emitted by diesel engines.
These toxins add to pollution from factories and power plants to create a deadly smog. But while tough industrial regulations have driven down factory emissions – these advances have barely made a difference to pollution levels because of the increasing number of diesel cars on the road. Scientists now believe a typical diesel vehicle emits ten times as much nitrogen dioxide as a petrol equivalent. The UK is notoriously bad at controlling air pollution, with 37 cities across Britain persistently breaching legal limits of air toxins set by the EU.
NHS watchdog NICE in December warned air pollution now contributes towards 5 percent of all deaths in England, and called for a reduction in speed limits and traffic to be restricted around schools.
London is already planning to introduce an ’emission zone’ which diesel drivers would be charged to enter, and other cities are set to follow suit. But experts are desperate to find new ways to rein in the damage done by pollution, after legal annual limits for pollution were breached in the first week of January. Motorists in Westminster have been told they may soon be charged 50 percent extra for on-street parking in a diesel.