Correction- Glasgow among UK’s most polluted town and cities in UK
Following a news article titled “Glasgow among UK’s most polluted town and cities in UK” published on 19th December, REHIS would like to make the following correction.
Although the information was taken from a recent report published by the Royal College of Physicians and Lancet Countdown it was discovered after our publication that the data presented related to measurements taken three/four years ago.
Indeed, in the last three/four years the PM measurements in Glasgow have shown a distinct improvement and has for the past few years met all WHO targets and Scottish objectives for PM10 and PM2.5. All Glasgow’s air quality reports are available here.
In addition, it has been noted that there are issues with the data comparison. The data which was taken from World Health Organisation’s (WHO) ambient air database compared a single kerbside monitoring location in Glasgow against various locations elsewhere which could be roadside, urban background. Therefore, it would be inaccurate for a single reading from one city to then be compared against an average value derived from other non-comparable locations in another city.
As mentioned in the previous article, Scotland was the first country in Europe to pass legislation based on WHO guidelines on safe levels of PM2.5s.
Glasgow will also be the first city in Scotland to introduce a low emission zone by 2018. The Scottish Government is also working with other local authorities to introduce other low emissions zones in each of the four biggest cities by 2020 and then to all other air quality management areas where necessary by 2023.
REHIS apologise for publishing this inaccuracy and is grateful for the opportunity to highlight the error in the previous article.
