Theres nothing sweeter than the smug feeling that youre getting the better of the rat race. While your fellow commuters struggle in on the bus, you sail by on your bike or jog along overtaking them at every traffic jam on your way to work. But what if instead of doing your body a favour youre really exposing it to dangerous air pollution?

Exercising or playing sport in Britains cities can be a dirty affair. We have some of the worst air-quality figures in Europe, London is one of the EUs worst offenders for poor air quality and as many as 30,000 people across the country die prematurely each year because of poor air quality – more than die from alcohol abuse, obesity or in car accidents.

The majority of this pollution comes from emissions of toxic gases and particulates from car exhausts and dirty diesel engines. These include nitrogen dioxide NO2 gas and PM10 and PM2.5 particulates, tiny specks of oily and partially combusted matter. There is no known “safe” exposure level to PM10s and air quality is so poor in some places, and particularly in the capital, that the UK is regularly in breach of EU limits and is threatened with a total of £300m in fines. “The last time there was this much concern about air pollution in London was during the Great Smog of 1952,” says Simon Birkett, director of air pollution watchdog Clean Air in London. “Levels of nitrogen dioxide are more than twice World Health Organisation guidelines and legal limits near Londons busiest streets.”

via Urban exercise: beat the smog – Features – Health & Families – The Independent.

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