Stolen Life

Death and illness caused by air pollution

A Green Party 2002 local election briefing

1. Summary

1.1 Air pollution kills up to 24,000 people in the UK every year and hospitalises tens of thousands more. [ 1 ]

1.2 The current British population stands to lose about 16 million years of life due to air pollution -unless we do something radical about it. [ 2 ]

1.3 Health costs of road transport alone amount to some £11.1 billion a year. [ 3 ] The health costs of air pollution from the UK aviation sector are estimated at more than £1.3 billion a year. [ 4 ] Heathrow airport alone contributes about 10% of the England and Wales total of volatile organic compounds. [ 5 ]

2. Effects of pollutants on health

a. Carbon dioxide (CO2)

At high levels this causes headaches, drowsiness, nausea and slowed reflexes, and at very high levels it causes death. At low levels it can impair concentration and nervous system function and may cause exercise-related heart pain in people with coronary heart disease.

b. Nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Impairs respiratory cell function and damages blood capillaries and cells of the immune system.

c. Carbon monoxide (CO)

Increases susceptibility to infection and aggravates asthma. In children exposure may result in coughs, colds, phlegm, shortness of breath, chronic wheezing and respiratory diseases including bronchitis.

d. Ozone (O3)

Ground-level ozone reduces lung function in healthy people as well as those with asthma. It may increase susceptibility to infection and responsiveness to allergens such as pollens and house dust mites. It may cause coughs, irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, headaches, nausea, chest pain and loss of lung efficiency, and increases in the likelihood of asthma attacks.

e. Particulate matter (PM)

Strongly associated with a wide range of symptoms such as coughs, colds, phlegm, sinusitis, shortness of breath, chronic wheezing, chest pain, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and loss of lung efficiency. As many as 15% of asthma and 7% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease cases in the urban population are estimated to be possibly related to prolonged exposure to high concentrations of PM. Long term exposure is associated with increased risk of death from heart and lung diseases. PM may carry carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and hence may increase the risk of developing cancer. Government health experts believe that particulate poulltion causes around 8,500 premature deaths in the UK every year. [ 7 ]

f. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

This category of pollutant includes thousands of different chemicals, many of which are hydrocarbons (HC). They may cause skin irritation and breathing difficulties. Long-term exposure may impair lung function. Many individual compounds are carcinogenic, including benzene, which is added to unleaded petrol. Benzene can cause leukaemia. Those most at risk are people exposed to benzene at work or who live or work in the vicinity of petrol filling stations or general vehicle activity.

g. Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)

SO2 irritates the lungs and is associated with chronic bronchitis. People with asthma are particularly vulnerable and a few minutes' exposure to the pollutant may trigger an attack. The most serious effect occurs when SO2 is absorbed by particulate matter and then inhaled into the lungs. At high doses it can release sulphuric acid on reaction with moisture in the lungs. This can result in widespread death and illness - for example, it is likely to have been the main cause of the 4,000 deaths during the notorious 1952 London smog. [ 8 ] One study links SO2 with cancer. [ 9 ]

3. The solution

3.1 The solutions to the problem of air pollution are well known and need not be described in detail here. Green Party policies on transport, industry and non-nuclear renewable energy show the way to meet society's material and social needs in a manner that doesn't have such disastrous unintended side-effects. See our website at www.greenparty.org.uk, especially /reports and /policy.

Notes

1. The Department of Health has published figures showing that up to 24,000 people die each year in the UK because of air pollution, and 31,000 are admitted to hospital: COMEAP (the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution), Department of Health, 1998.

2. Maddison 1998 notes that: "Even on the basis of quite conservative estimates the residents of England and Wales will in aggregate lose something in the order of 15.7m years of life unless ambient concentrations of particulate matter fall significantly from their current levels. In addition, the air pollution generated by road transport will bring forward the deaths of at least 10,800 individuals each year. Thus, it is true to say that at least three times as many people are killed from the effects of air pollution generated by road traffic as die in road traffic accidents." Fair Payment From Road Users? A critical look at the calculations for air pollution, David Maddison, Centre for Social and Economic Research into the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London and University of East Anglia, for ETA Trust on behalf of: Council for the Protection for Rural England, Friends of the Earth, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000, December 1998.

3. See Fair on Fuel, Fair on the Future, Green Party, November 2000.

4. See External effects of transport by IWW and Infras, cit Aviation's Economic Downside, Green Party, August 2001.

5. NRDC 1996, cit Aviation's Economic Downside, Green Party, August 2001.

7. http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/industry_and_pollution/factorywatch/indepth/index.html#a .

8. British Lung Foundation (1998) Transport and Pollution: the health costs.

9. Environment Protection Agency (1993) Estimation and evaluation of cancer risks attributable to air pollution in SW Chicago, EPA, Washington DC, USA. Conclusion: these pollutants contributed to elevated rates of cancer incidence in the vicinity of Midway Airport (SW Chicago). Midway's arriving and departing planes contribute far more of these toxic pollutants than other industrial sources within a pre-defined 16 square mile study area. The EPA study estimates that aircraft engines are responsible for 10.5% of the cancer cases in SW Chicago caused by toxic air pollution.