Government called to teach people about air quality of car emissions

The government should do more to inform people about the dangers of toxic vehicle emissions, one expert has said.

Ed Dearnley, policy officer at Environmental Protection UK, said that in the last ten to 15 years not enough awareness has been made about the dangers of poor air quality as a result of car emissions.

He said that as well as the damage to the environment, pollution caused by cars also has a negative impact on the health of the public.

"People tend to associate vehicle and environmental issues with carbon emissions alone. So people need to be aware of the toxic emissions issues in their buying decisions," Mr Dearnley commented.

He called the government to set up pollution warning systems all over the UK.

These would be similar to initiatives already established in London and some southern counties, which informs people where and when air quality is particularly low so the public can avoid those areas.

His comments come after Volvo announced that more than 50,000 premature deaths had been caused by toxic emissions.

Posted by Joseph Hutton