CHOOSE carefully where you live in London, the air is toxic. In almost half of London boroughs, the proportion of deaths from air pollution rose between 2010 and 2011, .
Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the Greater London Authority, says that 360,000 extra vehicles burning diesel between 2000 and 2011 are partly to blame. This is because they emit particles which aggravate lung and heart conditions. In the 15 boroughs where death rates rose, percentages attributed to pollution were highest in Westminster, up from 8.30 to 8.32 per cent in 2011. England鈥檚 average is 5.36 per cent.
鈥淭he climate-change linked policy of favouring diesel over petrol has really backfired for Europe because of the increased pollution,鈥� says Frank Kelly of King鈥檚 College London.
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鈥淲e need more electric vehicles,鈥� says Jones, 鈥渂ut the simplest solution is to reduce the traffic on our roads.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淧ollution, a blight on London life鈥�
