Every diesel car in London costs over £1,000 per year in health costs

If people swapped driving for walking or cycling for a quarter of trips, the NHS and wider society would save over £1bn every year in health costs from local air pollution, according to new research by the universities of Oxford and Bath.

Air pollution from cars and vans costs Britain almost £6bn every year in health bills with the impact most acute in cities. The health cost of an average car in inner London over its lifetime was calculated by the researchers to be almost £8,000. For diesel cars this figure was nearly double. The damage to health from diesel vehicle emissions is around five times higher than petrol vehicles and 20 times greater than for EVs (electric vehicles).

Almost one thousand schools in Britain are near roads with harmful levels of illegal pollution, which should be of particular concern because the young are at a higher from air pollution. Children aged between 8-10 years in polluted cities have up to 10 per cent less lung capacity than normal - according to doctors, lung function that may never be reversed.

Clean Air Day on 21 June, aims to raise awareness of air pollution and the harm it causes.

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