‘Killer pollution’ contaminating playgrounds, peer warns

The Government has been criticised for allowing “killer pollution” to contaminate playgrounds by not being ambitious enough with air quality targets.

Lord Simon Stevens of Birmingham said it was “unusual” to find an area of public policy “where the case for faster action is as barn-door obvious as it is in this instance”.

The former NHS chief executive pointed to Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s 2022 annual report, which concentrated on the devastating impact toxic air has on health.

It found between 26,000 and 38,000 people a year were dying due to its effects.

Measures to cut the number of damaging invisible particles in the air, known as PM2.5, have stalled over the last decade, the report said.

During a debate on Environmental Targets in the House of Lords on Monday night, Lord Stevens said: “Because, unlike the smog in the 1950s, we are dealing with something that is essentially invisible, at the proposed rate of knots primary school playgrounds, GP surgeries, shops and high streets will continue to have killer levels of pollution that will go unattended for years to come. Surely the Government should think again.”

It comes as the Government will on Tuesday lay out a major environmental improvement plan for England.

Every household will be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water under the proposals, which also include commitments to restore at least 1.2m acres of wildlife habitat and 400 miles of river, and improve the way information on air pollution is communicated to the public.

MP Geraint Davies will in the Commons on Tuesday argue the need for new laws to establish the right to breathe clean air.

During a ten minute motion he will call for the Office for Environmental Protection to be given new powers to enforce legislation relating to air quality.

The Standard has backed “Ella’s Law”, a bill that will enshrine the human right to clean air in law.

The Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill is named after Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.