Question: on a scale of one to ten how polluted is somerset compared to birmingham

Daniel Marsh answered on 11 Jun 2018:

As air quality scientists we regularly get asked to make direct comparisons between different cities or locations. It is likely that overall Birmingham emits more pollution as a city than any of the smaller towns in Somerset. However if you were standing next to a busy congested road in Somerset your personal exposure to air pollution may be far higher than if you were standing in a quiet road somewhere in the outskirts of Birmingham. We need to understand where the pollution ‘hot spots’ occur in any town or city and deal with them on a case by case basis.