The myth of Britain’s air pollution pandemic

It is a good thing that there is an air pollution bill in the Queen’s Speech today. We should not have to tolerate foul air. But the suggestion that this will be addressing some dramatic and growing crisis is misplaced. The idea that Britain is in the midst of a ‘silent pandemic’ of air pollution deaths – as claimed by a UN Special Rapporteur two years ago – is not even slightly aligned with the truth. In fact, air pollution in Britain has fallen dramatically over the past half century. A clean air act is about furthering huge progress that has already been made, not about challenging some growing problem.    

London smogs were gone by 1970 – the reference date now used for air pollution in Britain. The earlier clean air acts had seen to that, banning the burning of coal in open fires in heavily built-up areas. Yet still the air in that year was utterly filthy compared with now.