LONDON (CU)_The non-profit group the Central Office of Public Interest (Copi), together with the Imperial College London, recently produced the most detailed map of dirty air to date in the UK. It shows that virtually every country in the country is subjected to air pollution above the limits set out by the World Health Organisation.
According to the report, over 97 per cent of addresses breach WHO limits for at least one of three key pollutants, while the percentage of those exceeded limits for all three stand at 70 per cent. These figures were determined by producing pollution estimates every 20 metres across the UK by combining 20,000 measurements with computer modelling. They also ranked each address based on its national pollution levels, and found significant gaps was a significant gaps between them. For instance, Buckingham Palace, one of the world’s most iconic buildings, is a highly polluted area in the 98th percentile. In contrast, Balmoral Castle in Scotland has the cleanest air, in the zero percentile.
Some of major cities in the top 10 per cent of the most polluted areas included the town of Slough, in Berkshire, with 90 per cent, followed by London, with 66 per cent. While people are now able to check their address at the website addresspollution.org, Copi is calling for landlords and property sellers to be legally required to disclose air pollution data of properties, similar to the case with asbestos. “Air pollution affects all of us. With this new accurate data now publicly available, it would be shameful for the property industry to not start acting transparently – lives depend on it,” Humphrey Milles, the founder of Copi, said, adding that the issue is currently being neglected by the government.
