6/4/2023 0 Comments Airborne kingdom iconWhat is Scotland doing about air pollution? 5Ī real-time ranking of the cleanest and most polluted locations by Scotland AQI can be viewed at the top of this page, along with a live Scotland air quality forecast within each location’s page. 4 NO 2 pollution in Scotland is emitted largely from fuel combustion in road transport, particularly diesel as well as power stations and domestic heating. These were: Glasgow’s Hope Street (55.6 µg/m 3) Nicolson Street in Edinburgh (48.8 µg/m 3) Seagate in Dundee (43.9 µg/m 3) Academy Street in Inverness (43.3 µg/m 3) Lochee Road in Dundee (42.5 µg/m 3) and St John’s Road in Edinburgh (41.9 µg/m 3). During 2019, seven streets were recorded as having annual average NO 2 levels exceeding 40 µg/m 3. However, despite most Scottish locations achieving the WHO target for PM2.5, it should be noted that the WHO emphasizes there is no known “safe” limit for exposure to particulate pollution, below which no health impacts may be observed.Īlternatively, numerous locations within Scotland are found to breach both the Scottish, UK and EU’s shared annual average target limit concentration for nitrogen dioxide of 40 µg/m 3. 3 All other Scottish locations with available data scored an annual average PM2.5 level between 4.9 to 8.2 µg/m 3, with Stirling emerging as Scotland’s cleanest city for PM2.5 pollution during 2019. According to IQAir’s 2019 World Air Quality Report, Munlochy was found to have the worst levels of PM2.5 air pollution in Scotland in 2019, with an annual average concentration of 10.7 µg/m 3. 2 Scotland’s levels of PM2.5 mostly achieve both the Scottish and World Health Organisation (WHO)’s target limit of annual PM2.5 concentration below 10 µg/m 3, with the exception of the village of Munlochy. While Scotland’s air quality is generally found to be cleaner than that of its neighbour England, the nation-state Scotland’s air pollution is estimated to contribute toward 2,500-3,500 premature deaths annually, based on research by the Royal College of Physicians. Certain groups of the population are more vulnerable to the impacts of Scotland air pollution, such as children (whose lung development may be stunted), the elderly, lower income communities and people with pre-existing health conditions. Health issues caused by air pollution in Scotland can include the development or aggravation of respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, in addition to heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The main pollutants of concern within Scotland are particulate matter (microscopic airborne particles with a diameter less than 10 microns, also known as PM10 or PM2.5), and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2). Scotland air quality ranks among some of the least polluted within the United Kingdom, but air pollution remains a significant health hazard causing thousands of premature deaths per year, and often exceeds both Scotland’s and the European Union’s legal limits.
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