UK Supreme Court could force clean up of Scottish air pollution

The UK Government is being challenged by environmental lawyers Client Earth in the Supreme Court today over its failure to meet European laws on nitrogen dioxide air pollution. The European targets were set to protect people’s health and should have been met by 2005 but are still widely exceeded in Scotland, with Glasgow not expecting to meet the targets until at least 2020.

Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland said:

“Air pollution is killing off around 3,000 people a year in Scotland, and government and local authorities have done almost nothing about it for more than a decade.  It is a national disgrace that people are still breathing air which is bad for their health 8 years after the standards were supposed to have been met.  

“Scotland has air pollution problems in all our major urban areas and it is particularly scandalous that plans for Glasgow won’t see target met until at least 2020.

“Very best of luck to Client Earth in forcing Government to take air pollution targets seriously.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland recently revealed the scale of air pollution problems in Scotland’s cities last month:  www.foe-scotland.org.uk/news030213

New research revealed the extra threat from air polliution for heart attack victims: http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/news200213