A health warning has been issued across Scotland due to this week’s warm weather stirring up dangerous levels of air pollution.
A combination of still air, bright sunlight and high temperatures today is reacting with concentrated levels of traffic emissions in towns and cities across Scotland, creating areas of low air quality that can cause harm to those with respiratory and other health issues.
The Met Office has today recorded “moderate” levels of air pollution in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire measuring five out of ten on the air quality scale, with level four air pollution recorded in the Highlands, Moray, Shetland and Orkney.
In all of Scotland the only area where pollution levels have been deemed safe and low is the Western Isles, which received a level “3” for airborne pollution.
Emilia Hanna, an air pollution campaigner for environmental charity Friends of the Earth Scotland said: “Air pollution occurs when there is still air, high temperatures and sunlight. These react together to cook up traffic fumes and create ground ozone.
“Forecasts are showing that levels of ground-level ozone air pollution across Scotland will be breaking World Health Organisation safety standards.
“The official health advice for the expected levels of air pollution is for people with heart and lung problems such as asthma or emphysema, who experience symptoms, to consider reducing strenuous activity, particularly outdoors.
“Regular exposure to levels of pollution that we see day in, day out on city streets in Scotland increases the risk of people having a heart attack or stroke.
“Some of this air pollution will have blown in from elsewhere but it is adding to the heavy air pollution caused by traffic on our streets.”
Earlier this year Friends of the Earth Scotland named two Aberdeen streets as the most polluted in the country, with concentrations of dangerous chemicals in the air breaking legal limits on Market Street and Wellington Road.
Ms Hanna continued: “Air pollution causes 2,000 early deaths every year in Scotland.
“Tackling air pollution will save lives and reduce costs to the NHS, in addition to helping Scotland meet its climate change emission targets.”