On Clean Air Day 2026, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is calling on governments across the UK to stop treating air pollution as an environmental issue and start treating it as a public health emergency.
30,000 deaths a year. A £50 billion cost to the economy. Toxic air that shortens the average lifespan by nearly 2 years. On Clean Air Day 2026, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is calling on governments across the UK to stop treating air pollution as an environmental issue and start treating it as a public health emergency.
Published in 2025, the RCP’s landmark report A breath of fresh air set outs the most comprehensive picture yet of what polluted air is doing to our bodies. The findings are stark: air pollution harms almost every organ in the body and is linked to a wide range of diseases, killing tens of thousands of people every year and costing the economy tens of billions.
Yet the UK is falling behind international peers in our efforts to tackle the challenge. With far less ambitious targets than the rest of the EU, the UK is no longer in line with air quality guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). Vehicle emissions are a leading contributor to the toxic air we breathe, but the UK government is poised to slash its 2030 EV sales target from 80% down to as low as 50%.
On Clean Air Day 2026, the RCP’s message is clear: this is the wrong move at the wrong time.
Air pollution is a public health priority requiring urgent, ambitious action – and governments across the UK must now commit to delivering WHO air quality guidelines that will save lives.
‘A public health emergency’
More than one in 19 deaths in UK cities and large towns are linked to long-term pollution exposure. Air pollution shortens the average person’s lifespan by 1.8 years, a figure that ranks alongside the impact of tobacco smoking. 96% of neighbourhoods in England and Wales exceed WHO guidelines for fine particulate matter. Globally, the picture is almost the same: 99% of the world’s population is breathing air the WHO now considers potentially toxic.
The harm begins before birth and continues throughout life, linked to low birth weight, stunted lung development in children, and in adulthood to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and dementia. The RCP’s report A breath of fresh air also highlights the cardiovascular toll: individuals admitted to hospital for a heart attack were more likely to have been in traffic in the 2 hours prior to admission.
Children pay the heaviest price
Air pollution impacts everyone, but it does not impact everyone equally. Children in the most deprived areas are four times more likely to die from asthma than those in wealthier communities.
The RCP’s report A breath of fresh air found evidence that long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution suppresses lung function potential during childhood, and can impact the development of the brain, which is highly sensitive to pollutants in childhood and adolescence.
The threat hiding indoors
Outdoor pollution is only part of the picture. People spend most of their time inside buildings, yet there are few standards for pollutant concentrations in indoor air. Poor ventilation, damp and mould, gas cooking and cleaning products all contribute, and this largely invisible threat is under-researched and poorly recognised, receiving little attention from policymakers.
Clean air zones are already proving their worth
Where action has been taken, the results are compelling.
London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has delivered measurable health improvements by reducing roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Respiratory sick leave has dropped by 18.5%, with an 8–10% decrease in conditions such as asthma and bronchitis, and hospital admissions for children with asthma have fallen notably in central and inner London.
Beyond physical health, research shows up to a 6% reduction in anxiety levels, attributed to cleaner, less congested urban environments. Over the longer term, modelling suggests the policy will prevent nearly 300,000 new cases of air pollution-related illness, including lung cancer, coronary heart disease and dementia, by 2050, saving the NHS an estimated £5 billion over 30 years.
The picture is similar beyond London. Clean Air Zones in Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Bradford have also demonstrated significant gains: studies show restricted-traffic zones correlate with a 2–12% reduction in cardiovascular events and strokes, and a 10–14% decrease in respiratory disease and COPD symptoms. The Confederation of British Industry has found that these zones reclaim millions of working hours previously lost to pollution-induced illness.
Professor Sir Stephen Holgate CBE, RCP special adviser on air quality and lead author of A breath of fresh air, said:
‘The evidence base linking air pollution to serious disease has never been stronger. We are no longer talking about lung disease alone. These particles – invisible to the naked eye – travel to every organ in the body to initiate and accelerate non-communicable diseases and we know they can cross the placenta leading to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Clean air is not a luxury, it's a medical necessity.
‘Around 30,000 people in the UK die prematurely every year because of air pollution. That is not an environmental statistic. That is a public health emergency, and it demands to be treated as one. Clean, safe air is not something individuals can secure for themselves. It requires governments to act with the same urgency and ambition they bring to other threats to our nation’s health.
‘The science is clear. What we now need is the political will to match it.’