Air pollution: the silent killer

Young Workers April 21 2016

Dense polluted foggy air filled London’s streets during the Great Smog of 1952, causing over 4,000 deaths, leading to the implementation of the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. Britain has come a long way in environmental policy since then yet air pollution is on the rise but this time it’s invisible and threatening public health in the form of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, mostly emitted by diesel vehicles.

An important and recent report on the lifelong impact of air pollution by the Royal College of Physicians finds that each year in the UK over 40,000 deaths are attributable to exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution and that the associated health risks could cost the UK economy more than £20 billion every year. This would put unnecessary strain on an already overstretched NHS. The report reveals the damaging health impact occurs across a lifespan and that childhood exposure to harmful air pollutants has a lasting influence on health. So any action taken now would have long-lasting improvements. Exposure to air pollution has been linked to cancer, respiratory diseases, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. However the air quality we breathe indoors is often overlooked. Sources of indoor air pollution include radon, second-hand smoking, faulty boilers, gas cookers and air fresheners, cleaning products and from house and dust-mites.

The report called for measures to be taken to tackle the problems causing poor air quality. These include putting the responsibility on polluters. They recommend that political leaders at a local, national and at EU level must introduce tougher regulations including reliable emissions testing for vehicles. Other recommendations for action included monitoring air pollution effectively especially in urban areas and near schools, quantifying the relationship between indoor air pollution and health, giving local authorities the power to divert roads in levels of high pollution and to lead by example within the NHS.

Achieving an improvement in air quality requires strong and urgent action from all governments at national and international level. This current government has consistently failed in challenging the issue of air pollution and it is clear that environmental policy has not been on the top of the agenda for the Conservative government. Many people in the UK are exposed to illegal levels of air pollutants and the UK government has consistently missed EU targets to reduce emissions especially from diesel vehicle that produce the toxic gas Nitrogen dioxide.

The government faces a new legal threat to force it to speed up and take action to tackle air pollution in UK cities. Environmental law firm ClientEarth has requested the Supreme High Court to review the government’s latest plans to improve air quality. Last year they successfully sued the government over failures to properly address air quality. Big cities like London, Leeds and Birmingham were in breach of targets of Nitrogen dioxide set by EU law within hours of its implementation. New Clean Air Zones will be introduced in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020. In London an ultra-low emission zone will be introduced by 2020. Yet environmental campaigners argue that the delayed plans are simply inadequate.

The government estimates that pollution in London will not fall to legal levels until 2025. A report published last week by the Institute for Public Policy Research sets out a plan for the new mayor to address these challenges and calls on the mayor to prioritise making London a global green city’. It states that air pollution in London is responsible for more illness and premature deaths than alcohol and obesity.’ It highlights concerns that growing traffic congestion, failure of greenhouse gas emissions to reach targets, poor recycling levels and that around 1 million people are living in fuel poverty are contributing to high pollution in the capital.

It is everyone’s responsibility to reduce air pollution and to act with urgency to protect the health of societies at large. The impact of collective action on tackling pollution levels in communities is huge. Taking more environmentally-friendly modes of transport such as cycling, walking, trains and buses, supporting campaigns such as ClientEarth’s #NO2Dirtyair campaign on clean air and aiming for an energy efficient home are just some of things we all can do to help improve the quality of the air we breathe.

Written and compiled by:

Anneka Bhardwaj
CWU Research & Information Services