Cities see a surge in heart attacks and strokes on days when there is bad air pollution .
Air pollution contributes to 36,000 deaths a year in England and causes significant health risks, it is claimed.
A study of nine cities found spikes in pollution trigger hundreds of heart attacks, strokes and acute asthma.
Researchers found on days when pollutant levels were in the top half of the annual range there were an extra 124 cardiac arrests on average.
The figure discounts cardiac arrests suffered by patients already in hospital and is based on ambulance call data.
The study took place in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton.
It also found there was an average of 231 additional hospital admissions for stroke, with an extra 193 children and adults needing asthma treatment.
The risks from pollution were worst in London, then Birmingham, according to King’s College London.
Only Derby did not see an increase in heart attacks. Cutting air pollution by a fifth would lower lung cancer by between 5% and 7%, experts found.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Since these avoidable deaths are happening now – not in 2025 or 2050 – we need to act now.”
Stunted lung growth and low birth weight are among long-term risks.
The figures were published ahead of the International Clean Air Summit, being held in London on Wednesday.
Local governments have vowed to help their communities shift to 100% clean energy by 2050.
