THE vice-chancellor of the University of Brighton has called on the Government to take more notice of evidence pointing to an air pollution crisis facing the planet.

Professor Debra Humphris was commenting after university scientists presented new research showing how society was facing a “public health timebomb”.

They told how air pollution is linked to 50,000 premature deaths in the UK every year, 9,400 in London and 430,000 in the EU as a whole, through heart disease, asthma, and even dementia.

Lead researchers Dr Kirsty Smallbone, head of the School of Environment and Technology, and lecturer Dr Kevin Wyche, are studying ultra-fine particles which can pass through the lung alveoli and contaminate organs including the brain.

Their data comes from the university’s state-of-the-art £250,000 advanced air pollution monitoring station based at its campus in Falmer and funded by the EU’s Interreg IVB NWE programme and the University of Brighton as part of the Joint Air Quality Initiative.

Professor Humphris was joined by Keith Taylor, Green MEP, who described the lack of action on air pollution as a national scandal.

Professor Humphris said: “We have the only air quality monitoring station of its kind in the UK that is addressing an incredibly important global issue, and we must act on this data.

“We will work to highlight the evidence to the Government in the hope it will take air quality seriously.”