Pupils could wear pollution-sensitive badges

A scheme proposed at Newcastle City Council could see children in the city’s schools issued special badges that will warn if they are being exposed to high levels of air pollution.

A spokesman for Newcastle council said the badges would “enable people to see the impact of something that is, in effect, an invisible killer,” which is linked to hundreds of deaths on Tyneside a year.

The badges could also highlight the problem of pollution being caused by parents picking up and dropping off children at school.