Preston is braced for possibly high levels of air pollution over the next few days.

There have already been reports of Saharan dust covering cars in the last couple of days. The air quality was poor and the atmosphere on Monday and Tuesday morning certainly ‘foggy’.

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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) warns that England will suffer moderate to high air pollution levels. Large swathes of the country will be affected with the south east and east from a line around The Wash to Cheshire to east Devon having locally very high pollution levels. 

Luckily, forecasts show the North West will have mainly moderate pollution levels.

A Defra spokeswoman said: “The high level of air pollution this week is due to a combination of local emissions, light winds, pollution from the continent and dust blown over from the Sahara.

“We want to keep improving air quality and have introduced a new five-day forecast service in addition to investing heavily in local and transport initiatives to tackle this issue head-on.”

Air pollution has short term and long term effects on health. People are concerned about pollution in the air that they breathe. These may include: People with heart or lung conditions, or other breathing problems, whose health may be affected by air pollution. Parents, carers and healthcare professionals who look after someone whose health is sensitive to pollution.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in March that air pollution is “the world’s largest single environmental health risk”.

They commented a link exists between air pollution and heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer. In 2012 around south east Asia and the western Pacific region, about 3.3m people died as a result of indoor air pollution and 2.6m deaths were related to outdoor air pollution.

Preston Council have air quality monitoring in the city Preston at Bootle Street and Meadow Street.

Did you awake today or yesterday to clean Saharan dust from your car? Let us know in the comments below