Air Quality Report from Environmental Audit Committee (2010)

Link to 2010 press release

"Experts at the Health Protection Agency say that current methods of reporting the health effects of air pollution are outdated, and need to be reviewed, if they are to more accurately reflect environmental risks in the 21st century.

"Despite a huge improvement in air quality since the Fifties, recent scientific studies suggest that long-term exposure to fine particles - of less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter called PM2.5 - are associated with an increased risk of death from heart disease at all adult ages. And in March, the Government's* Environmental Audit Committee reported that long term exposure to air pollution may be a contributory factor in the deaths of between 35,000 and 50,000 people each year in the UK."  

[*It is Parliament's committee, not the Government's.]

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House of Commons – Environmental Audit Committee

"This report, 'Air Quality (HC 229-I)', concludes that poor air quality reduces the life expectancy of everyone in the UK by an average of seven to eight months and up to 50,000 people a year may die prematurely because of it. Air pollution also causes significant damage to ecosystems. Despite these facts being known, air quality is not seen as a priority across government, and the UK is failing to meet a range of domestic and European targets.

"The quantified costs of poor air quality that are used to develop policy are out-dated. They do not take account of all the known health effects, treatment costs, and environmental damage, nor do they take account of fines that could be imposed by the EU for failing to meet air quality targets. Many Government departments do not seem fully to understand how their policies affect air quality, the impact poor air quality has, and its cost to the economy.

"Awareness of the issue needs to be raised at all levels of government, and policies need to take greater account of air quality impacts. Transport causes the most exposure to harmful air pollutants, and air quality targets will not be met without a significant shift in transport policy.

"Local authorities need to do more to tackle poor air quality and they must be given information on how to develop local air quality strategies."