Poor air quality affects the health of everyone. It is through actions taken by all of us that we can improve it. If you live, work, shop in or visit Portsmouth you have a part to play in improving air quality.
There are five main ways of improving air quality:
- improve flow of traffic and its fluidity
- reduce people's exposure to pollution
- reduce traffic
- drive less polluting vehicles
- eco-driving
Some facts about air pollution in the city:
- new cars are less polluting than old and poorly maintained cars
- traffic is the main polluter in Portsmouth
- in some part of the City road traffic related air pollution account for more than 80% of the over all air pollution
- poor air quality is bad for health, reducing life expectancy by an average of 8 months in the UK
- Portsmouth has 13 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) where pollution levels are above the government standards and 3% of the population live in these areas
- lorries alone cause around 40% of the pollution but they are crucial for the economy of the city