London has low damages from air pollution

The Guardian is, strictly, correct here:

The health costs of air pollution from roads are higher in London than any other city in Europe, a study has found.

Two other urban areas in the UK, Manchester and the West Midlands, have the 15th and 19th highest costs respectively among the 432 European cities analysed.

The Guardian is also being horribly misleading even as they are that, strictly, correct. For they are telling us the gross amount of damage to human beings from that air pollution. Which, given that London is, by far (between two and three times larger than the next on the list studied, Berlin) the largest group of people being looked at seems reasonable, that it should be so. Even if the damage were 1 penny per person per year London would still be top of the list of shame of gross damage.

It is rather later in their reporting that we get told this:

City size, combined with pollution level, is a key factor contributing to total social costs.

London, on a per capita basis, doesn’t even make the top 10. Actually, London is about half the per capita cost of those top 10 - roughly, you understand.

A useful example of selective reporting leading to being entirely misleading. But then one has to read The Guardian extremely closely to find something not so these days….