Around six million people in the UK run regularly, with three-quarters citing health as their main motivation. But these benefits could be counteract not by speed or how often you exercise, but by where you choose to run, with around 80 per cent of runners making a mistake that could potentially increase their risk of developing respiratory problems, stroke and heart disease. The research, carried out as part of the Otrivine Actions to Breathe Cleaner campaign, has found that eight out of 10 runners use roadside routes, with a third of those in urban areas spending the majority of their workout among traffic.
This means they are breathing in high levels of air pollution, a toxic cocktail of pollutants, the dangers of which are well known. The Government estimates long-term exposure to air pollution kills as many as 36,000 people a year, calculating that over an 18-year period. Meanwhile, brand new research presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress today (Wednesday), shows that emergency hospital admissions rise by 10 to 15 per cent with increased pollution — even when levels remain within World Health Organisation guidelines.
Pollutants come in two forms - gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia, and everything else, which is known as particulate matter, or PM. This includes natural irritants such as pollen and dust, as well as carbon, metals, rubber and compounds from brake linings and even the road surface itself. Public Health England (P.
