Air Pollution: Don't You Know That I'm Toxic?

This week the House of Commons launched a 'super inquiry' into the growing concern around air pollution in Britain. Four select committee panels will combine to examine the latest scientific evidence on how pollution in Britain is impacting health and the environment.1 This week's blog is by our colleague, Giles Dean, a senior consultant in the firm's risk advisory ractice; in it he discusses the impact that air pollution can have on our health and what is being done in the UK to tackle the problem.

Air Pollution

I moved to London just under three years ago having studied for a degree in Environmental Science in Sheffield. Almost immediately the contrast in air quality between the two cities was stark. It was not something I had paid a huge amount of attention to before, but now, living in London, it soon became clear that London had an air pollution problem.

Impact to health

Reports about toxic air pollution are increasing across the globe.2, 3 According to a recent UNICEF report, 300 million children around the world are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution.4 The most visible impacts come from severe pollution episodes, and there is mounting evidence that suggests changes in particulate matter (contained in polluted air) cause increases in mortality rates.5

A recent report published by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health discusses the lifelong impact of air pollution on human health and well-being.6 It shows that long term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution such as nitrous oxides (NOx), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - caused by a number of familiar objects from personal care products to combustion appliances - are linked to an increase in asthma, type 2 diabetes, brain development cardiovascular diseases, cancer, decline in lung function and changes linked to dementia.7

There is also evidence suggesting that climate change can increase the level of pollutants in the air we breathe and thereby increase mortality. For example, a report looking into the 2000 excess deaths caused by the UK's 2003 heatwave attributed between 21 and 38 per cent of these deaths to air pollution.8 A more recent study has suggested that anthropogenic climate change increased the risk of heat-related mortality in London by 20 per cent during the same heatwave.9 Indeed, with current climate models suggesting temperature anomalies such as the one on 2003 will become standard by 2040, the future...