A STREET in the centre of Glasgow is the country's most polluted, according to a league table from Friends of the Earth Scotland.
Roadside monitoring found Glasgow's Hope Street had the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particles in 2013, while Aberdeen's Market Street was the worst for particulate matter.
These have been linked to respiratory illness such as asthma, and the charity said research has linked exposure to fine particles with heart attacks. It said some Scottish levels of pollution fell below EU and UK standards.
Other streets with high levels of nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter include Central Road, Paisley, Seagate in Dundee, Wellington Road, Aberdeen, Atholl Street in Perth, and Salamander Street in Edinburgh.
Emilia Hanna of Friends of the Earth said: "Fumes from cars, lorries, buses and factories are killing off more people than car crashes. Air pollution is like passive smoking: we do not choose to breathe in this poisonous air.
"This year, as Scotland hosts the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and people talk of the legacy of the Games for youngsters … the athletes of the future need clean air."
She added: "Both the Scottish Government and our local authorities are only just beginning to take this seriously and between them they need to act urgently."
Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: "While we have seen nationally a 65% decrease in nitrogen oxides, a 78% decrease in sulphur dioxide and a 58% decrease in particulates between 1990 and 2011, we recognise that more can be done. That is why we recently consulted on proposals for further action to improve air quality and expect to set out next steps later this year."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article