WALKING around Glasgow city centre for a
day does the same damage to your lungs as smoking more than 40 cigarettes and
poses a greater health risk from pollution than walking through London, research
has found.
Levels of the dangerous gas nitrogen oxide were examined at
30 city centre locations across Britain and it emerged that air quality in
Glasgow and Aberdeen was among the worst.
The investigation, carried out
by Calor Gas, claims that people wandering through the two Scottish cities face
a greater health risk than that posed by pollution emitted from London traffic.
The figures were based on a 24-hour average, but at peak traffic times
pedestrians would be virtually "chain smoking".
Researchers ranked
Glasgow the third-worst polluted spot in the UK, where it was estimated a person
would consume the same amount of nitrogen oxide, a dangerous pollutant emitted
from car exhausts, as if they had smoked almost 45 cigarettes.
The test
found standing at Glasgow City Chambers would have the same impact on human
health as lighting up almost 15 cigarettes.
And researchers ranked
Aberdeen city centre in 26th position, where pedestrians will inhale the same
amount of nitrogen oxide daily as a person who smokes more than 13 cigarettes.
A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "A revised version of the Air
Quality Strategy was published in 2000 and it should have a major positive
impact on air quality throughout Scotland in the coming years."
Dr Dan
Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth, said: "It is well known that
air pollution kills. The fact that people are comparing it to the effects of
smoking should help raise awareness of the problems."
