Call for urgent action to stop deaths from ‘invisible killer’ air pollution
A health charity is urging the government to step up action to battle the “invisible killer” threatening the lives of more than 15 million Britons.
Toxicairpollutionisresponsible for thousands of early deaths in the UK each year.
The latest figures suggest around 64,000 people in the UK – including 2,500 in Scotland – die annually due to the impacts of breathing in dirty air, which can damage the lungs, heart and brain.
Recent research suggests one in every 29 deaths in Scotland’s largest cities is linked to poor air quality.
Now a new report for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) estimates around one in four people live in areas where concentrations of tiny poisonous particles in the air exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
This means around 15 million UK residents are likely to be exposed to dangerous levels of these contaminants, known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5.
The charity is calling for tighter legal limits on acceptable levels of pollution as well as Clean Air Zones, a public health awareness campaign and an increased focus on walking and cycling.
Currently, the UK subscribes to EU limits on levels of PM2.5. However, these are not as strict as those set out by the WHO, and progress towards reducing pollutants has been mixed since the previous UK government’s Clean Air Strategy was published in January 2019.
The BHF insists the nation’s health cannot wait any longer, and the forthcoming new environment bill should introduce WHO air pollution limits into UK law by 2030.
Jacob West, director of healthcare innovation at the BHF, said: “The uncomfortable truth is that UK heart and circulatory deaths attributed to air pollution could exceed 160,000 over the next decade unless we take radical steps now.”
He added: “We can’t see them but every day we all breathe in tiny toxic particles which damage our heart and circulatory health. They are an invisible killer.
“We must not become complacent and accept that dirty air is a part of normal life.
“Politicians have a unique opportunity to limit the damaging effects of pollution and improve the quality of our air, and they must seize it.”