UK uses 'more robust' measure of air pollution than rest of EU

The criteria used by the UK to compile air quality statistics may be more robust than that in other European Union (EU) countries, a report has indicated.

This could be the reason greater numbers of EU air pollution level breaches are seen in the UK compared to other countries on the continent, the Defra report stated.

According to experts, the UK's hard-line approach to air pollution analysing provides a more detailed breakdown of data for EU compliance assessment.

The UK supplements its data with modelled predictions for its EU compliance assessments with modelled estimations, which is the equivalent to monitoring everywhere across the UK.

While measured air quality is based on actual readings at monitoring sites, modelling uses a number of mathematical and scientific methods in order to calculate concentrations. It tends to usually be used to predict pollution levels from sources or areas that do not have specific monitoring sites.

However this is not the method used by the majority of EU countries. In fact, only the UK and Netherlands currently submit modelling data alongside their measured data.

This approach in the UK has led to the country reporting that 40 out of its 43 zones in the country exceeded the annual mean nitrogen dioxide limit value for 2010. This equates to 93 per cent of the country.

Furthermore, this proportion is markedly higher than other sizable member states which have similar concentrations and distributions of nitrogen dioxide such as France (30 per cent), Italy (36 per cent) and Germany (62 per cent).

The report explains that if the UK had the same number of measurement sites as similar states, the expected number of zones that exceed regulations would be much lower.

"The number of zones exceeding the limit value is far fewer than the current UK situation of relying on all modelled data to make up the number of sites," it said.