Nearly All UK Homes Suffer Air Pollution Above World Health Organization Limits
The Guardian|April 29, 2022
Virtually every home in the UK suffers from air pollution above World Health Organization guidelines, according to the most detailed map of dirty air to date.
Damian Carrington
Nearly All UK Homes Suffer Air Pollution Above World Health Organization Limits

More than 97% of addresses exceed WHO limits for at least one of three key pollutants, while 70% of addresses breach WHO limits for all three.

The map, produced by the nonprofit group the Central Office of Public Interest (Copi) and Imperial College London, combined 20,000 measurements with computer modelling to produce pollution estimates every 20 metres across the country. People can check their address at addresspollution.org for free.

The website also ranks addresses against national pollution levels. For example, Buckingham Palace in London is in the 98th percentile, with highly polluted air, while Balmoral Castle in Scotland is in the zero percentile, with the cleanest air.

The towns and cities with the highest proportion of homes in the top 10% most polluted nationally are Slough in Berkshire, with 90%, followed by London, with 66%. The 10 worst also included Portsmouth, Leeds, Manchester and Reading.

This story is from the April 29, 2022 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the April 29, 2022 edition of The Guardian.

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