Experts take a breath of fresh air over fears of killer pollution in our city

YOU can measure and compare pretty much everything nowadays, from UV levels to pollen counts, congestion and outside noise.

-  RUCSANDRA MOLDOVEANU

Unsurprisingly, in an era when we're all conscious of our impact on the environment, you can also keep an eye on air pollution.

Sometimes it can be a little alarming. A few weeks ago we were contacted by a reader who said that the air quality in Nottingham was as bad as Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, and Baghdad, capital of Iraq, according to Apple's weather app.

Now we're not afraid of criticising our city, but even we found this hard to believe. It was true, though, with air quality levels in Nottingham measured as high as 7 (high) out of 10 (very high) last month.

The index suggested that, at that particular time, sensitive groups and anyone else experiencing discomfort, regardless of age, “should consider reducing strenuous physical activity, particularly outdoors”.

The colours on the air quality map were also a fairly concerning shade of red. Did we need to dig out the old face masks again or stop training for that marathon?

Thankfully, it turns out that, as with most things in life, it shouldn't be too much of a worry for most people.

Benjamin Jones, associate professor at the University of Nottingham's Department of Architecture and Built Environment, said: “All the different numbers and colours that you get on air quality indexes are made up because there’s nothing saying where a level 1 should be and so on. If you're exposed to contaminants in the course of a day, you might feel wheezy or maybe get an asthma attack.

“This is called an acute short-term effect.

“Over years and decades, however, you have the chronic effects which lead to very serious conditions like emphysema [a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)], and lung cancer.

“The air quality indexes are responding to the short-term effects.

“These traffic light indexes can cause people to worry when they perhaps don’t need to.”