The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published a new report examining the effects of air pollution on health throughout the life course, calling on UK governments to treat air quality as a public health issue.
The RCP’s new report highlights new evidence gained over the last decade showing that there are now links between air pollution and almost every organ in the body and the diseases that affect them.
According to the report, around 30,000 deaths per year in the UK are estimated to be attributed to air pollution, with an economic cost of £27 billion in the UK due to healthcare costs, productivity losses and reduced quality of life. When wider impacts such as dementia are accounted for, the economic cost may be as high as £50bn.
The new RCP report is an update to the 2016 joint Every breath we take report from the RCP and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). It sets out new evidence gained over the last decade about the health harms of air pollution even at low concentrations. We now know that air pollution exposure in early life is linked to poor health later in life and that it impacts foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions and dementia.
Indoor air also poses a growing concern, requiring considerably more attention. People spend the majority of their time in buildings, but there are few standards for pollutant concentrations in indoor air. Poor ventilation, damp and mould and emissions from domestic heating, gas cooking and cleaning products can all contribute to poor health.
It also highlights the links between air quality and health inequalities, showing that air pollution disproportionately affects those from more deprived or vulnerable backgrounds.
Put simply, there is no safe level of air pollution, and increasingly ambitious action needs to be taken to improve air quality across the country to reduce avoidable deaths and improve the health of our population.
The report sets out 19 recommendations aimed national, regional and local governments across the UK, industry, regulators, the NHS, clinicians, and individuals in society.
These include:
- National, regional and local governments across the UK must recognise air pollution as a key public health issue and take increasingly ambitious action to reduce people’s short- and long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution.
- UK governments should identify robust pathways towards the delivery of the World Health Organization’s 2021 global air quality guidelines.
- National and local governments must take greater action to tackle all sources of air pollution, increasing action where progress is already being made and tackling areas that have been overlooked or lightly regulated, such as agriculture, indoor and domestic emissions.
- All air quality policy developed by national and local governments across the UK must consider the disproportionate impacts of air pollution on certain groups.
- UK government should fund and deliver a coordinated, UK-wide public health clean air campaign to provide accurate and trusted information about the health impacts of short- and long-term air pollution exposure, the sources of indoor and outdoor air pollution, and practical advice to reduce personal exposure.
- National governments across the UK should work with the research community, industry, third sector and regulators to develop a cross-departmental indoor air quality strategy.
- UK government must regularly review the effectiveness of the air quality limit values and population exposure reduction targets as public health measures, assessing whether more stringent limit values, legally binding interim targets or other tools and approaches would be more effective at continuously driving down air pollution
- Health professionals and practitioners have a responsibility to speak to and educate their patients about the health effects of air pollution and to advocate for cleaner air.
You can download the full report and summary for policymakers below.
Led by the RCP’s special adviser on air quality, Professor Stephen Holgate CBE, alongside chapter leads Dr Suzanne Bartington and Dr Gary Fuller, the report was developed with the help of 30 clinical and academic experts and approved by RCP Council.