With Greater Manchester in the midst of an ‘ozone pollution episode’, should the region change how it monitors air quality?

Greater Manchester is in the midst of an ‘ozone pollution episode’, a campaigning group says.

High temperatures and existing traffic pollution means the episode was forecast for the area yesterday, today and tomorrow, according to the Clean Cities Campaign.

As we prepare for extreme heat to become a more common occurrence, the group is calling for a change in the way air quality is recorded in the city-region.

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Greater Manchester Combined Authority measures levels of air pollution over the year and reports on breaches of legal compliance . But the Clean Cities Campaign claims this gives a ‘a false impression’ of air quality in the city-region.

They have produced a map which demonstrates how nearly all sites monitored for air pollution in our region breach the World Health Organisation guidelines.

Just three of the 452 sites recorded as within the legal limit are compliant with World Health Organisation guidelines - Green Lane in Hollingworth, Cheadle Library and Lyme Park.

Oliver Lord, UK head of Clean Cities Campaign, says: “The GMCA presents the measurements very much to the letter of the law, so it is wholly focused on whether areas are meeting the legal limit of 40ug/m3 NO2. This means there are a considerable number of 'green' markers that indicate everything is doing well.

“However, the latest World Health Organization guideline for NO2 is 10ug/m3. Therefore, whilst parts of GM may be achieving the legal limit, this was actually based on much older health advice and things have moved on a lot.

“I think it would be much better for these maps to demonstrate that the city region is still far beyond achieving these guidelines. The WHO guidelines are certainly