The particles, called particulate matter (PM), are non-gaseous substances in the air, some of which are small enough to enter the human body and have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n
It is estimated around half of UK concentrations of PM come from human-made domestic sources such as wood burning, construction and tyre and brake wear from vehicles.<\/p>\n
Researchers conducted a walking survey in London and found the highest pollution spikes in narrow corridors like Wilson Street (14m wide) and Eldon Street (13m).<\/p>\n
Amin Al-Habaibeh, professor of intelligent engineering systems, who oversaw the study, said: “London’s iconic streets may be beautiful, but invisible smog traps which prevent pollution from dispersing may be silently harming public health.<\/p>\n
“Our findings show a clear link between narrow roads, tall buildings, and air quality spikes \u2014 especially for pedestrians and cyclists, who are the most exposed.”<\/p>\n
The study emphasised the issue was not limited to London, pointing to a 2025 report by Friends of the Earth which found 95% of neighbourhoods in England and Wales had harmful air pollution levels. <\/p>\n
It said while PM levels had been falling, measures like the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and the Congestion Charge Zone needed to be backed with further action.<\/p>\n
“There’s a temptation to think of ULEZ and electric vehicles as silver bullets,” said PhD researcher Nikhil Ravindra.<\/p>\n
“But our data shows that volume of traffic, road layout, building height, and wind direction all play a role in air quality. A greener and smarter approach is urgently needed.<\/p>\n
“The value of artificial intelligence also has a part to play in managing electric vehicle charging and traffic flow, as AI-enabled systems could reduce carbon emissions by up to 40 per cent annually per vehicle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The particles, called particulate matter (PM), are non-gaseous substances in the air, some of which are small enough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-415360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115184782964955320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}