Newcastle has been named the worst city in Europe for nitrogen dioxide pollution in the air, according to a new study.
The city recorded the highest concentration of NO2 across the continent in March, according to scientists at air quality monitoring firm Airly. However, the “oversimplified” findings have reignited a row with council bosses, who insist that they are not an accurate picture of Newcastle's pollution problem.
Airly said that the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the city last month was 44.6 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m3), a number 179% higher than the World Health Organisation's recommended limit. Naples came second highest in the ranking with 42.4 µg/m3, followed by Paris on 41.2, with London 16th on 29.4.
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But Newcastle City Council complained that the figures were based on data from only a “handful” of government monitoring stations, rather than the hundreds across Tyneside. The local authority previously hit out at Airly last year when Newcastle was listed as the second most polluted city in all of Europe, claiming last June that the claim was “completely unreliable and misleading”.
A council spokesperson said: “Despite Newcastle having hundreds of validated air quality monitoring devices, it would appear this company has taken average figures from only a handful of monitoring locations, including one at a tunnel, over a very short period of time. This does not provide an accurate representation or appropriate comparison of levels of air pollution across cities in Europe.”
A Clean Air Zone imposing tolls on some high-polluting vehicles in the city centre is due to come into force soon in order to combat illegal emissions levels, while the council is also proposing to pedestrianise a large chunk of the city centre including Grey Street and Blackett Street. The local authority added: “Air pollution has very serious health implications for us all and we are committed to addressing this through the powers at our disposal.
“We appreciate the intention of this company is to raise awareness of the impact of poor air quality but it’s disappointing that oversimplified and generalised analysis paints a skewed picture. This could act to detract from the reality of the situation and the need for us all to do our bit to improve air quality.”
Airly spokesperson Marcin Gnat responded that the pollution ranking was “not intended to stigmatise the actions of specific cities” and that Newcastle’s position was based on data from Defra monitors. He added: “Our intention was to investigate the air we breathed on the European continent in the past month. The trends seemed atypical to us, due to phenomena such as dust from the Sahara, high atmospheric pressure, and no wind, air quality in the western part of Europe was at times worse than in the eastern-southern part of the continent.
“The ranking is not intended to stigmatise the actions of specific cities, but as an indication that it is worth paying attention to this problem, and that knowing what we breathe is the first step towards taking appropriate and well-tailored measures to improve air quality. We have no doubt that Newcastle City Council does a lot to keep the air as clean as possible.
"We keep our fingers crossed that all actions taken by the local government bring the expected results and if we can help in any way to achieve this goal, they can always count on us.”
