Roadside pollution ‘raises risk of lung cancer’
LIVING WITHIN 164ft (50 metres) of a major road can increase the risk of lung cancer by up to 10 per cent, a report has said.
The study, written by King’s College London and released by a coalition of 15 health and environment NGOs, showed that proximity can also stunt children’s lung development by up to 14 per cent.
Conducted across 13 cities in the UK and Poland, the research suggested that air pollution contributes to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, heart failure and bronchitis.
The report analysed 13 health conditions in people living in high pollution areas and compared them to the general population, focusing not just on hospital admissions and deaths but also symptoms such as chest infections.
The findings showed that if air pollution was cut by one fifth, there would be 3,865 fewer cases of children with bronchitic symptoms in London, 328 in Birmingham, 94 in Bristol, 85 in Liverpool, 85 in Manchester, 134 in Nottingham, 38 in Oxford and 69 in Southampton, the researchers said.
The study also found that roadside air pollution stunted lung growth in children by between three and 14 per cent. Dr Rob Hughes, of the Clean Air Fund, said: “Air pollution makes us, and especially our children, sick from cradle to the grave, but is often invisible.”
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, echoed the calls for the UK government to clean up the country’s “dangerous” air. She said: “It seems as if every day we see more and more evidence of the terrible health effects air pollution is having on our lungs.”