On 19/05/2021 01:55 pm, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

[ ... ]

When the coroner in London ruled that the little girl who died a few
months ago was due to pollution, there was quite a local fuss. Of course
transport got the blame since she lived close to a busy main road, but
several different types of sources will have contributed to that pollution.

And unless lots of other people in the location where that unfortunate
girl lived are dropping like flies, falling victim to (only) the
self-same "pollution", then it was probably not the pollution which
killed her, though it might (or might not) have exacerbated whatever it was.

For a time when I was a boy, we used to live directly on the A59 in
central Liverpool, less than a hundred and fifty yards from the Mersey
Tunnel entrance. There were almost no emission controls in those days,
and as well as traffic (lots of it), we were surrounded by dwellings
burning coal in grates and various industrial premises, including a
nearby brewery, all doing the same.

We all managed to survive.