2 The air quality problem
Heath effects of poor air quality
6. Poor air quality leads to poor human health.
There are short-term effects on, for example, the respiratory
system, and more serious impacts due to long-term exposure including
permanent reductions in lung function. Air pollution has been
linked to asthma, chronic bronchitis, heart and circulatory disease,
and cancer.[4]
7. Particulate matter is thought to have the
most damaging impact on health with adverse effects to health
seen at very low concentrations.[5]
Ozone and particulate matter are linked to summer smog episodes;
it has been estimated that there were between 225 and 593 additional
deaths due to increased ozone in the first 2 weeks of August,
during the 2003 heatwave, compared to the year before. 207 additional
deaths have been attributed to increased concentrations of particulate
matter during the same period. For England and Wales, the deaths
due to air pollution accounted for 21-38% of the total reported
excess deaths during the 2003 heatwave. Climate change is likely
to make air quality problems worse.
The Government's advice
8. The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air
Pollutants (COMEAP) is an Advisory Committee of independent experts
that provides advice to government departments on the health effects
of air pollutants. In 1998 COMEAP estimated that on average up
to 24,000 people in the UK die prematurely every year as a result
of short-term exposure to air pollution and thousands more are
hospitalised. This figure has been used in several recent reports
including the Cabinet Office report, The Wider Costs of Transport
in English Urban Areas in 2009, and in the Royal Commission
for Environmental Pollution's 2007 report on the urban environment.
The Air Quality Management Resource Centre, at the University
of the West of England, told us that when this figure was first
published there was a general feeling that it was too high and
an assumption that over time it would be found to be lower. COMEAP
is currently re-quantifying the health effects of air pollution.
In June 2009 it published Long-term Exposure to Air Pollution:
Effect on Mortality. This put forward quantitative estimates
of the effects of long-term exposure to particulate pollution
on mortality. It suggested that particulate matter has a greater
effect on mortality in the UK than previously thought.
9. Professor Frank Kelly from the Environmental
Research Group at King's College London explained that if new
evidence was taken into account the 1998 figure of 24,000 premature
deaths per year would rise to 35,000.[6]
Research by the European Environment Agency suggested that the
figure could be as high as 50,000 for the UK. In the case of London,
Professor Kelly told us that new evidence would support a figure
of around 3,500 early deaths per year. Studies in other countries
have suggested that the risks from poor air quality could be even
higher. If the more extreme figures suggested by this work were
used the estimate of the number of early deaths in London could
be as high as 8,000. Initial concerns that COMEAP's 1998 figure
was an over-estimate appear, in the light of new evidence, to
have been wrong.
10. The Government's current 2007 Air Quality
Strategy estimates that particulate matter reduces life expectancy
by around seven to eight months, averaged over the whole population
of the UK. This is an average and for individuals who are particularly
sensitive and are exposed to the poorest air quality the reduction
in life expectancy could be as high as 9 years.[7]
The Department of Health commissioned work from the Institute
of Occupational Medicine[8]
to compare the benefits of eliminating man-made PM2.5
with the elimination of motor vehicle traffic accidents and the
elimination of exposure to passive smoking. The results are shown
in table 1.Table
1: Comparison of the benefits of reducing PM2.5 by
10 µg/m3 (equivalent to eliminating man-made PM2.5
in 2005), the elimination of motor vehicle traffic accidents and
the elimination of exposure to passive smoking
| Reduction in PM2.5
| Elimination of road traffic accidents
| Elimination of passive smoking
|
| Expected gain in life expectancy
| 7-8 months | 1-3 months
| 2-3 months |
| Estimated equivalent gain in life years in England and Wales from 2005-2110 for the whole population (including people born during that time)
| 39,058,000 | 8,126,000
| 13,194,000 |
Source: Department of Health, Ev 142
EU targets
11. The UK is failing to meet some of its EU
and domestic targets, nor is it on course to meet others that
will come into force in the future.
PARTICULATE MATTER
12. The European Commission has launched infringement
proceedings against the UK for failing to comply with the air
quality standard for PM10. In April 2009 DEFRA submitted
a notification to secure additional time, until 2011, to comply
with the limit values for PM10. London is the only
part of the UK still failing to meet PM10 limit values.
It has the worst air quality in the UK and the worst in Europe
for particulate matter and NO2.[9]
On 11 December 2009 the European Commission refused to grant an
extension. DEFRA and the Mayor of London will now be forced to
agree a more convincing plan to justify its claim for an extension
and avoid potentially significant EU fines. Since limits on PM10
came into force in 2005, Ireland and Luxembourg are the only EU
member states not to have exceeded limit values.
NITROGEN OXIDES
13. The UK now also faces proceedings from the
EU for failing to meet the limits for NO2 that came
into force in January 2010. Defra said that meeting EU limits
values for NO2 in areas of exceedence presents a much
more significant challenge and will require specific actions to
limit emissions from transport in urban areas. Rural NO2
levels across the UK are slightly lower than the EU average
but NO2 concentrations at urban background sites are
about 20% higher than the EU averages.[10]
Similarly, at roadside sites UK mean NO2 concentrations
are higher than the EU roadside averages by about 20%.
14. The UK is predicted to fail the NOX
emissions ceiling target imposed by the European National
Emissions Ceiling Directive.
Emissions are projected to be 1,210 ktonnes
in 2010, which just exceeds the legal limit. Twelve other EU Member
States are also projected to miss the 2010 emission ceiling for
NOX.[11]
15. Power station emissions will be a significant
factor if we fail to meet emission ceiling targets. In a recent
assessment of power stations, six of the ten most polluting emitters
in the EU were found to be in the UK. This is largely because
decisions were made by the Environment Agency—based on the
limited life of plants and the costs involved—not to require
UK coal fired power stations to fit selective catalytic reduction
technologies to reduce NOX emissions.[12]
Such technologies are more widely used in other European countries.
Although power stations emissions have little impact on roadside
NO2 and on our failure to meet NO2 limit
values, they do contribute significantly to the formation of particulate
matter and damage to ecosystems.
OZONE
16. Ozone concentrations have been steadily increasing
over the last decade in urban areas, due to reductions in emissions
of NOX in these areas. If this trend continues future
ozone concentrations could exceed target values and long-term
objectives will be missed.
17. Concentrations of ozone are heavily dependent
on the weather and trans-boundary pollution, making it a difficult
pollutant to regulate and control. International cooperation is
essential to reduce the emissions of the pollutants that react
in the atmosphere to form ozone. The European Commission is expected
to publish a proposal to revise the National Emission Ceilings
Directive.[13] This is
likely to include tighter emission ceilings for ammonia, sulphur
dioxide, NOX and volatile organic compounds that must
be met by 2020 and this will indirectly help tackle ozone pollution.
18. The lives of many people in the UK could
be extended by tackling air quality. We recognise that the Government
has access to high quality advice from UK experts, such as COMEAP.
But warnings about the impact poor air quality has on health are
not being widely publicised. More should be done to update the
figures the Government uses in its appraisal of policies. Environmental
Protection UK, an environmental charity, said that the evidence
about the health effects of air pollution was not communicated
clearly across Government or to the general public.[14]
The Mayor of London agreed that air quality issues were neglected
by decision makers at all levels of government, primarily because
of ignorance. Information has not been given to relevant stakeholders
on the health effects of air pollution in the areas of poorest
air quality.[15]
19. The scientific evidence suggests that the
number of premature deaths caused by air quality has been underestimated.
New evidence on the longer-term impacts shows that greater gains
in life expectancy could be achieved by tackling air quality than
are currently being realised by efforts to eliminate road deaths
and passive smoking combined.
Air quality must be a higher priority for Government. Defra must
raise the profile of the issue by publicising the latest data
on premature deaths more widely and making clear the benefits
of improving air quality.
4 NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
5
NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
6
Q 66 Back
7
Ev 93 Back
8
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Comparing estimated risks
for air pollution with risks for other health effects, March
2006 Back
9
NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
10
NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
11
NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
12
Q 184 Back
13
NAO, Air Quality, January 2010 Back
14
Ev 65 Back
15
Ev 2 Back
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