Scottish parents warned about "poisoned playgrounds".

A campaign's been launched to protect children from dirty air in Scotland as new research shows more than 950 schools are near roads which suffer from harmful levels of illegal pollution.

The findings that thousands of children are playing in playgrounds within 150 metres of roads with illegal air pollution across the UK comes from an assessment for environmental law charity ClientEarth of the latest government data.

A YouGov survey for the environmental lawyers found three quarters (76%) of 1,141 parents and carers questioned want extra measures to protect pupils whose schools and playgrounds are in illegally-polluted areas.

More than half (57%) of 1,658 adults questioned in the poll felt the Government was not acting quickly enough to tackle the UK's air quality problems.

Air pollution is linked to the early deaths of about 40,000 people a year in the UK, causes problems such as heart and lung diseases and asthma and affects children's development.

ClientEarth is launching a Poisoned Playgrounds campaign which allows parents to see whether their child's school is near a road with illegal levels of air pollution, by entering the postcode into an online search.

Supporters of the campaign are being urged to put pressure on the Government, via their MPs, to take action to curb air pollution.

ClientEarth air quality lawyer Alan Andrews said: "Thousands of children in this country are playing in playgrounds near illegally polluted roads.

"This is a legal and moral failing of our political leaders that puts children's health at risk at a time when they are still growing and therefore vulnerable. Naturally, parents want something to be done. So do we.''

The campaign also features a video of young children from two schools suffering from nearby air pollution.

Billboard adverts are going up in some of the most polluted towns and cities, including Birmingham, Cardiff, Derby, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Southampton, with details of the number of schools in the area near polluted roads.

ClientEarth wants a national network of clean air zones to keep the dirtiest vehicles away from illegally polluted areas and help for people to move to cleaner forms of transport, as well as efforts to prevent cars idling outside schools and to encourage walking and cycling instead of the school run.

Details of schools near polluted roads can be found at: www.poisonedplaygrounds.co.uk