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, according to Public Health England.
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's average is 5.36 per cent.
"The climate-change linked policy of favouring diesel over petrol has really backfired for Europe because of the increased pollution," says Frank Kelly of King's College London.
"We need more electric vehicles," says Jones, "but the simplest solution is to reduce the traffic on our roads."
This article appeared in print under the headline "Pollution, a blight on London life"
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