Ammonia is the only major air pollutant rising in the UK, as other forms of pollution have dropped. The findings of the investigation include:Government inaction and regulatory failings mean the most polluting farming sectors – dairy and beef cattle – are under no obligation to monitor, report or reduce ammonia emissions. The vast majority of ammonia emissions in the UK come from livestock manure. “PM2.5 is probably responsible for somewhere between half and three-quarters of the total harm we derive as humans from air pollution,” said Alastair Lewis, director for composition research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. From the 1990s until 2013, ammonia emissions fell by about a fifth in the UK as livestock production in some areas declined, and fertiliser use changed.

Source: The Guardian June 13, 2019 15:02 UTC