An asthma sufferer says he can feel chronic air pollution in parts of Birmingham - and is worried about the impact on his two-year-old daughter.

Peter Edwards, 32, actively avoids his local Kings Heath High Street and the city centre at busy times and wants his daughter to be able to walk to school without worrying about traffic.

The 32-year-old has suffered with asthma since he was a child and, despite being otherwise fit and healthy, can feel a tightness in his chest when around heavy traffic or queues of cars.

As a result he recognises the official estimates that 900 people in Birmingham die early every year as a result of poor air quality.

For children, older people and those with more serious lung and respiratory conditions he argues that the problem is acute and needs urgent action.

“It is a public health emergency," he said.

"If planes were dropping out of the sky or this were terrorist attacks stuff would happen. People are absolutely dying and something needs to happen quick.”

He has called on politicians and transport bosses to be brave and stop appeasing motorists through policy.

Last year he took part in a BBC documentary called Fighting for Air, which focused on the pollution in Kings Heath.

“Kings Heath High Street is typical of the issues we have in the city and the wider country through the over dominance of motor vehicles," he said.

“I will actively try to avoid the High Street, especially when I’m with my daughter, because I know it’s high in emissions. I will take side streets and won’t walk up and down it.

“I’ve suffered from asthma since a young age, not badly I’m quite and active and fit person but I definitely pick it up when I go into the city centre or into Kings Heath.

“I feel it the day after or sometimes instantly. The emissions hit me. I sometimes need to use the medication or I can feel that tightness in my chest and I’m a young healthy person.

On street parking on the out of town side of Kings Heath High Street
On street parking on the out of town side of Kings Heath High Street

“For people with lung conditions, vulnerable people it must be worse.”

Mr Edwards says the situation will influence his choice of school for his daughter, preferring she takes a bike ride or walk through the park every day to get there than pick a school which involves walking along and crossing busy roads or even needs a car to get there.

This is not only about pollution, but answers concerns over daily activity and road safety.

He said: “I already drive my daughter to nursery more than I’d like and stats show you are more exposed to air pollution in the vehicle. I sit in a traffic jam and wonder what’s coming in the vents now, my daughter and I are sucking that up.

“Children are closer to the exhaust pipe. If there’s queue of cars idling the youngsters are more in the firing line. It’s quite scary - I’m six foot and it might have dissipated by the time it reaches me, but I can taste it, I can smell it in the air.”

His job as sustainable travel co-ordinator at the University of Birmingham involves promoting cycling, walking and public transport and persuading people to leave their cars. A current initiative is an online car sharing site to match people to journeys.

“As someone who cycles to work every day filters down the side of traffic something which staggers me is that it is almost every single car is single occupancy," he said.

"It’s a most inefficient use of space.”

A solution is to step up investment in public transport and cycling - proposal like re-opening the Moseley rail line or extending the network of cycle lanes and tram lines can’t happen soon enough.

Mr Edwards argues that delivery lorries and HGV should be barred from areas like Kings Heath during main shopping hours.

For the Fighting for Air documentary the car parking bays on the High Street were removed for a day and replaced with hedges they found traffic flow increased and shoppers benefited from being further from exhaust pipes.

He argues this could be permanent and is part of a group called KHCan campaigning to make the changes permanent.