File on 4 Investigates Folgen

World health chiefs have branded diesel exhaust emissions a major cause of cancer. Despite the efforts of car-makers to filter out the most noxious substances, these fumes still play a big part in causing air pollution. Britain has the second worst respiratory death rates in Europe and has long been under notice from Brussels to clean up its act. So why are most UK areas in breach of legal limits? And do ministers have any clear plan to reduce the huge annual total of resulting deaths? Julian O'Halloran investigates. Producer : Rob Cave.

Figures released this month reveal almost 9000 new tuberculosis cases in the United Kingdom last year, the highest level since the 1970s. The disease has risen by more than a third in the past decade. In parts of London, Birmingham and other cities it is already at the level of high-risk countries in the developing world. Yet in most of the rest of Europe TB rates have been steadily falling in recent years. Health experts have found that cases of TB remain static among people of all ethnicities who were born in Britain. They attribute the national rise in cases to migration from some former British colonies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent.Airport screening of migrants, using a chest x-ray, identifies only active cases of the disease in the lungs. It misses the much more numerous cases of latent TB which can progress to become active at any time. An estimated 10,000 cases of latent TB arrive undetected in the UK each year. A nationwide survey of NHS blood-test screening programmes shows that the areas with populations most at risk are also those with least effort put into screening for latent disease. Patients' groups also question the level of GPs' awareness of the many manifestations of tuberculosis, citing cases of repeated missed diagnosis or misdiagnosis which have left patients suffering as the disease advances with sometimes fatal consequences. Gerry Northam investigates the resurgence of a condition once thought to be all-but eliminated from the UK and asks if the NHS is failing to tackle it. Producer: Gail Champion Reporter: Gerry Northam.

Thousands of British troops have been deployed to conflict zones since 2001, in the so-called War on Terror. Research is now beginning to confirm what many people have suspected - that a sizeable minority of returning soldiers - one in ten - are displaying increased levels of violence. This is impacting on families through domestic abuse and is raising the risk of people in the wider community becoming victims. With two years to go before frontline troops are pulled out of Afghanistan, is the Army doing enough to make sure returning soldiers are safe? And is the intensity of deployment to active combat zones making matters worse? Presenter: Jane Deith Producer: David Lewis.