Cleaner air cut deaths by 8.8% over 40 years, but more progress is needed

Improvements in air quality cut the number of deaths attributable to pollution in the UK sharply between 1970 and 2010, a new analysis has shown.

While in 1970 small particles less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM_2.5) were responsible for 11.8% of deaths, by 2010 that had more than halved, to 5.3%.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), the pollutant principally targeted in the current campaign against diesel vehicles, was responsible for 5.3% of deaths in 1970 and 3.0% in 2010, say the team from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.1

Emissions of NO₂ have fallen by a further 25% since 2010, according to …