A FAMILY doctor in smog-hit Cwmbran says his surgery has been inundated with patients suffering chest problems during the heatwave. The air in Cwmbran is among the smoggiest in the UK.

As temperatures have soared during the past 10 days, air quality has worsened, and the government pollution monitoring station in the town has charted its choking progress.

Cwmbran was one of two sites in Wales and among 25 in the UK where smog breached air quality standards every day last week. The other site in Wales was Aston Hill, Montgomeryshire, in rural mid-Wales.

All but four of the 80 monitoring sites in the UK reported breaches of accepted levels during the week.

Dr Greg Graham, who works in North Road surgery, Croesyceiliog, said: "Last week we were absolutely inundated with patients with respiratory problems because of the hot weather.

"We don't normally see that many patients this time of year, and we couldn't work out what it was. It was only watching the weather forecast yesterday that I realised it was due to smog.

"I work in both Pontypool and Cwmbran and only in Cwmbran were people suffering so badly last week.

"Now we are wise to the problem, someone needs to warn people of the dangers, or at least warn local GPs to expect more patients in the hot weather."

Llantarnam councillor Barbara Ryan, whose ward covers Cwmbran town centre, said: "It's a relatively small town surrounded by countryside, you wouldn't expect it to be full of pollution.

"I am sure that Torfaen council's environment department will want to look into these figures as soon as they get them."

Smog was the cause of the infamous 'pea-soupers' - choking fogs that enveloped London and other major cities in the age of coal-heated homes and belching industrial chimneys prior to the Clean Air Acts introduced in the 1960s.

Nowadays, it is mainly the result of strong sunlight reacting with pollutants created chiefly by vehicle exhausts which combine to create ground-level ozone.

It is thought that pollution is a major factor in 12,500 premature deaths every year in the UK, and almost 10,000 admissions to hospital, though the current heatwave has not caused an influx of patients to Gwent hospitals.

When the weather is hot, the air still, and there is high pressure, as it has been in recent days, conditions are ideal for smog build-up, especially in areas affected by pollution.