In 40 cities across the UK, people are inhaling dangerous levels of air pollution, which are equal to and often surpass the World Health Organisation’s guidelines. Air pollution is a public health crisis and a social justice issue. It disproportionately prevents certain groups of people from living a healthy and happy life. Time and time again we see that it’s those living in lower income areas and from minority communities who are among the groups most affected by air pollution.
Preventing ill-health
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently remarked: “We must move [away] from a mind-set that views health as all about sickness… To one where we put prevention first – right across society.” Living in urban areas carries many distinct challenges, which often start early in life and are influenced by wider determinants of health. At Impact on Urban Health, we believe that by removing obstacles to good health, we can make urban areas healthier places for everyone to live.
Air pollution is the single biggest environmental risk to your health. If the government wants to build an NHS fit for the future, it needs to prevent us getting ill in the first place and understand just how devastating air pollution is. “I worry so much about my son breathing toxic air,” Ruth Fitzharris, a mother of one, told us. “He’s had severe asthma since he was a one-year-old. His respiratory consultant advised us to avoid walking along traffic filled roads to try to protect him from vehicle emissions. His attacks often coincide with spikes in air pollution. But it’s not just traffic. It’s wood burning in winter, it’s diesel vans, construction sites… Parents shouldn’t have to worry about this.”
Evidence of the presence of harmful pollutants is shocking. For every ten micrograms per cubic metre of increased exposure to fine particulate matter, a person’s risk of dying from cancer rises by over 20 per cent. It is predicted that between 2017-2025, air pollution will cost the NHS and social care up to £5.56bn and cost the economy up to 3.9 million working days every year. But there’s good news: one piece of research suggests that the more a city cleans up its air, the longer its inhabitants live.
The government has an admirable plan to create the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever in Britain. Is that goal achievable while millions of children attend schools where air pollution is over WHO’s recommended limit? More than 15,000 children under the age of five were admitted to London hospitals with breathing difficulties last year. Without action, the health effects of air pollution will prevent the government from achieving its health mission.
Air pollution and inequality
The new government has said it’s focused on improving healthy life expectancy and on halving the inequality gap in health outcomes.
What better way to start than improving air quality? Air pollution and poverty are closely linked; indeed, people who are most affected by air pollution are often those who cannot afford to drive. Air pollution also disproportionately affects people from minoritised backgrounds. Research shows that children in areas of deprivation or who are from Black, Asian and minority backgrounds experience a greater air pollution burden. Children and unborn babies are also affected: research suggests that air pollution is as bad as smoking for pregnant women in raising the risk of miscarriage. For unborn babies, air pollution can cause lifelong health issues.
Change is possible
There is no single solution for air pollution. While they’re a positive step, electric vehicles are not going to solve the problem.
Instead, to see meaningful change we need action from businesses, local and city authorities, and leadership from the government. Four in five urban councillors support more action to improve air quality, but most of them say that government has typically left them underfunded and powerless to make meaningful change.
At Impact on Urban Health, we’ve been working with councils, businesses, and residents in south London to show that change is possible. From our work with the industry we know that construction sites can reduce air polluting emissions by over 30 per cent. But the sector needs – and would welcome – regulation from government to enable meaningful change. We also know that, when incentivised to do so, businesses in urban areas see benefits to switching from polluting vans to cargo bikes.
With 85 per cent of the UK’s population living in urban areas, the government will struggle to achieve its health plans as millions of people are left breathing dangerous levels of toxic air. By improving air quality, the government could help to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place, while closing the inequality gap in health outcomes across society.
What should government do?
To catalyse the action we need, the government must adopt new targets, aligned with WHO’s air quality guidelines, to protect everyone in the country from air pollution. And it can layout a roadmap to achieving those targets with a new Clean Air Act.
Secondly, government can reduce polluting emissions from freight by creating a new “Last Mile Taskforce”, bringing together relevant departments – from Net Zero, Business, Transport, and Environment – to work together with businesses to deploy the solutions we know work.
And finally, the government can incentivise businesses to track and reduce their polluting emissions. For example, by introducing a tiered business rate systems to reward businesses which go further, faster to improve their emissions footprint.
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