HEALTH campaigners and environmentalists have been quick to seize on a new report by medical experts claiming that air pollution, much of it traffic fumes, contributes to the deaths of up to 24,000 a year.

The solution, they say, is to curb traffic.

But what, then, of the government-funded study which today says that one means of doing that is not curbing car exhaust pollution, but increasing it by at least 50 per cent?

For road humps, which have spread like a rampant rash around the country, are responsible for a giant leap in emissions.

Scientists have found they can rise by as much as 70 per cent in hump areas because of increased braking and acceleration.

It will come as ironic comfort to the millions of drivers who hate humps - and ought to be of concern to their advocates - not least those in Hyndburn, East Lancashire's Humpsville - who say they save lives when now, it seems, they help to shorten them on a huge scale.

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