£6bn health costs of car pollution
POLLUTION from cars and vans causes almost £6 billion of damage to our health each year – with diesel vehicles the worst offenders, a study has found.
Researchers said the health costs to the NHS and society were worse in the cities, with the cost from an average car in inner London over the vehicle’s 14-year lifetime estimated at £7,700.
For diesel cars in the heart of the city, the health costs from nitrogen dioxide and tiny particles known as particulate matter or PM2.5 are as high as £16,424, researchers from Oxford and Bath universities found. On average across the country, health costs from air pollution that could be attributed to a car running on fossil fuels over a lifetime amount to £1,640, while a van costs £5,107 over its nine years on the road.
The health damage from diesel vehicles, which produce far more nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, is about five times higher than petrol vehicles and 20 times high than electric vehicles.
If every new car in 2019 were electric, it would save more than £325 million in health costs in the first year, according to environmental charity Global Action Plan, which is organising Clean Air Day on June 21. Swapping one urban car journey in four for walking or cycling could save more than £1.1 billion, it added.
Air pollution is linked to about 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK, the report said.
Dr Alistair Hunt, from Bath University, said: ‘Our research illustrates the individual cost that each car and van has on the NHS and wider society. Every time these vehicles are driven, they are having a significant impact on our health.’
Alison Cook, director of policy at the British Lung Foundation, said: ‘We know the health impacts of air pollution, and now the economic case for cleaning up the air we breathe has been laid bare.’
Martin Tett, environment spokesman at the Local Government Association, said Government plans to improve air quality had to be underpinned by sufficient funding.
He added: ‘It is also important that councils have the powers to further tackle air pollution, particularly with regard to clean air zones as well as expanded road and traffic measures.’