POLLUTION warnings have been downgraded after peaking at dangerous levels in the east of Scotland.

Forecasters predict that most of Scotland will be cool and cloudy today[fri], with only low to moderate levels of air pollution.

It comes after people with lung and heart conditions were warned to stay indoors yesterday as air pollution spiked to harmful levels in parts of Fife and the Lothians.

The village of St Monans in Fife was among those which recorded a 10 rating for air pollution yesterday - the highest danger level.

North Berwick in East Lothian recorded a nine, while pollution levels in Buckhaven, on the Firth of Forth, hit an eight.

The conditions, caused by a combination of dry settled weather and air flows from the east bringing over already polluted air from the European mainland, were expected to worsen today but a shift in wind direction means air pollution will be low in most places today with only "moderate" pollution - around level four - in the Firth of Forth area.

A statement on the Air Quality in Scotland website added that air pollution on Saturday and Sunday is also expected to be low.

However, Dr Sean Semple, an expert in air quality at Aberdeen University, said this week's air pollution scare should be put into context.

He said: "It is important to put these temporarily high levels in to some perspective. We tend to focus much more on outdoor air quality than the air inside our homes and workplaces and yet the evidence is that people spend between 80-95 per cent of our time in Scotland indoors.

"Recent measurements from homes in Scotland suggest that in the significant proportion of homes where smoking takes place the levels of fine particles experienced by those living there are many, many times higher than even the most polluted street in Scotland."