UK Edition
Traffic fumes pollution 'as bad for happiness as bereavement'
Pollution caused by traffic can be as detrimental to people’s happiness as losing a loved one, according to new research.
Academics at the University of York said nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is pumped into the atmosphere by diesel vehicles, can have a similar effect to “big hitting” personal events like going through a divorce.
It comes after it was revealed that ministers are considering a diesel car scrappage scheme to target the most polluted areas of the country.
The report said that "the welfare gains to society from reductions in exposure to NO2 can be substantive".
The authors wrote: "Our results suggest a significant and negative association between mean annual ambient NO2 and life satisfaction, and moreover that these effects are substantive and comparable to that of many 'big hitting' life events."
The authors also found that the effect of NO2 can be “substantive” with it having a significant impact on people's life satisfaction.
They said: "For example, our standardised coefficients suggest that the effect of NO2 on life satisfaction is equivalent to approximately half that of unemployment, and equivalent to that of marital separation and widowhood, factors commonly associated with some of the largest wellbeing reductions in the literature to date.
"Given that the effect of NO2 is, to some extent, experienced by everyone (ie not everyone is unemployed but everyone is subject to a certain level of NO2 exposure) this suggests that the welfare gains to society from reductions in exposure to NO2 can be substantive."
The findings of the report illustrate the significance of an issue which the government is looking to address.
Ministers are currently examining proposals which would see car owners effectively paid to scrap their cars but only if the vehicle is old enough and registered at an address where air pollution is at a dangerous level.
Such a “postcode” scheme targeted at “pollution hotspots” would likely be cheaper than a general scheme open to all diesel car owners.
Concerns over the impact of diesel cars on NO2 levels were raised by the Volkswagen emissions scandal in September 2015.
Following the scandal a Department for Transport investigation found that 37 top-selling diesel cars exceeded the legal limit required for laboratory pollution tests when driven for 90 minutes on normal roads.
Drivers were encouraged to switch petrol to diesel under Tony Blair's government and Prime Minister Theresa May has said that would be taken "into account" in future plans.
Uptake of diesel cars rocketed over the past decade after they were taxed less than petrol cars with the proportion of diesel vehicles on British roads increasing from 20 per cent in 2005 to 37.8 per cent in 2015.