Climate crisis: Is air pollution actually getting worse in Britain?

Analysis: Today we have both the means and the motive to tackle this deadly problem

(Getty)

The developed world has largely eliminated the opaque pea-souper smogs which marinaded city streets in dangerous toxins until the mid-20th century, but serious air pollution problems remain.

In the UK, recent reassessment of the scale of the problem revealed 64,000 deaths were attributed to poisonous air in 2015, and across Europe it is believed more people now die from air pollution than from smoking.

So is our air actually getting worse, or have we become better at assessing the damage?