Clean Air Day: Air pollution named 'serious public health threat'
A leading Leeds researcher who played a crucial role in Britain’s pandemic response has collaborated on a major new report highlighting growing evidence of health risks associated with air pollution.
Cath Noakes, Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings in the School of Civil Engineering, co-authored the report, “A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution”, which calls on the government to treat air pollution as a serious and preventable public health threat.
She said: “We are calling on policymakers to recognise both outdoor and indoor air pollution as a public health issue and take the necessary steps to tackle it so that everyone can have the best chance of good health.”
The report, led by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), warns that air pollution affects almost every organ in the human body, is estimated to contribute to the equivalent of 30,000 deaths in the UK in 2025, and costs more than £27 billion annually.
Published today, on Clean Air Day (June 19), it highlights studies from the last decade that provide new knowledge about the significant health impacts of toxic air, even at low concentrations, including on foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions, and dementia. As we spend more time in buildings, indoor air pollution also poses a growing concern. The report emphasises that poor ventilation, damp and mould, and emissions from domestic heating, gas cooking, and household products all contribute significantly to poor health.
No safe level
Professor Noakes said: “Air pollution continues to lead to thousands of preventable deaths every year, and there is no safe level of it. This includes indoor environments, which are still widely overlooked. We spend 80-90% of our time indoors where being exposed to emissions from things like wood burning, cleaning chemicals, damp and mould, and infectious diseases can significantly affect people, especially vulnerable inhabitants like children and the elderly.”
Professor Noakes’ Leeds research team has developed models to simulate the spread of pathogens inside buildings and other enclosed spaces – and the role of ventilation, air-filtration and disinfection systems in reducing those risks.
She added: “We need to improve the building product and ventilation standards we have, then monitor and meet those standards, otherwise we risk locking in inadequate indoor air quality for future generations.”
Air pollution continues to lead to thousands of preventable deaths every year and there is no safe level of it.
Clinicians, scientists, and experts from institutions across the UK have contributed to the report. In it, the RCP urges the UK Government to recognise air pollution as a public health issue, rather than a solely environmental one, and take urgent and ambitious action to reduce preventable deaths and improve population health. With impacts on both mortality and healthy life expectancy, the effects of toxic air on individuals, society, the economy, and the NHS are huge. The RCP report estimates that:
- In 2019 alone, the costs of healthcare, productivity losses, and reduced quality of life due to air pollution in the UK exceeded £27 billion, and may be as high as £50 billion when broader impacts, such as dementia, are taken into account.
- Annual costs could still be up to £30 billion per year in 2040, despite pollutant exposures being projected to fall in the coming years under current government policies, including Net Zero policies.
- Air pollution could still be linked to around 30,000 deaths in 2025, compared to government estimates of between 29,000 and 43,000 equivalent deaths in the UK in 2019.
The report’s co-authors agree there is no safe level of air pollution. They say that despite some progress in recent years, findings about the wide range of health impacts suggest the threat to public health remains significant and greater than previously understood.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, who wrote the foreword to the report, said: “Air pollution affects everybody, and is everybody’s business. This report is an excellent resource, laying out the latest evidence. It also identifies some of the key practical steps that we can take to reduce air pollution, and therefore reduce a major cause of premature illness and mortality.”
A toxic burden on the most vulnerable people
Air pollution is harmful to everyone, but the most deprived communities, who typically contribute least to emissions, disproportionately experience its effects and suffer the worst health outcomes. The RCP is calling for urgent action from the UK Government, including:
- Action to reduce pollution at source – including emissions from wood burning, agriculture, transport, and indoor pollutants;
- Identifying robust pathways towards the delivery of the World Health Organization’s 2021 Global Air Quality Guidelines on air pollution levels, with regular reviews of the most effective regulatory approach to drive down pollution and improve health;
- Targeted support to protect the most vulnerable and affected communities, who are often the groups least responsible for the problem;
- A UK-wide public health campaign on air pollution, modelled on successful smoke-free campaigns, that would provide accurate and trusted information about the health impacts of air pollution, sources of indoor and outdoor air pollution, and practical advice to reduce personal exposure;
- A cross-departmental indoor air quality strategy to address exposures including damp and mould in homes, workplaces, transport, healthcare settings, and indoor public and retail spaces; and
- Integration of air quality into Net Zero policy development to ensure that the substantial air pollution benefits of decarbonisation can be realised.
Dr Mumtaz Patel, president of the RCP, said: “We wouldn’t accept 30,000 preventable deaths from any other cause. We need to treat clean air with the same seriousness we treat clean water or safe food. It is a basic human right – and a vital investment in our economic future.”
“A breath of fresh air” is the latest RCP report to shine a light on the most significant public health issues facing society. Its 1962 report, Smoking and health, definitively stated the link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer.
