The City of London now ranks among the unhealthiest European cities for air pollution. 17 cities were judged on the action they had taken to reduce deadly particles from diesel vehicles. Only Düsseldorf, Milan and Rome were judged to be worse than London in a recent air quality study. London was deemed to have taken backward steps by halving the congestion charge zone, cut back on plans for new hybrid buses and increasing public transport fares. Bad air quality in Europe causes nearly 500,000 premature deaths a year, and costs up to €790bn a year to address. “The government and the mayor of London can no longer ignore the biggest public health crisis since the great smog of 1952," said James Grugeon, chief executive of Environmental Protection UK.
