A new report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), whose lead author was the University of Southampton’s Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, has highlighted growing evidence about the increased range of health impacts linked to toxic air, even at low concentrations.
It urges the government to act on air pollution as a serious and preventable public health threat.
The RCP warns that air pollution affects almost every organ in the human body, estimated to contribute to the equivalent of 30,000 deaths in the UK in 2025 and cost over £27 billion annually.
The new report , published on Clean Air Day (19 June), highlights studies in the last decade providing new knowledge about the significant health impacts of toxic air, including on foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions and dementia.
As we spend more time in buildings, indoor air pollution also poses a growing concern. The report emphasises that poor ventilation, damp and mould, and emissions from domestic heating, gas cooking and household products all contribute significantly to poor health.
In A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution, the RCP urges the UK government to recognise air pollution as a public health issue – rather than a solely environmental one – and take urgent action to reduce preventable deaths and improve population health.
University of Southampton professor of immunopharmacology, and lead author of the report, Sir Stephen Holgate said: “The science is now overwhelming; air pollution is a major driver of disease across the life course – from low birth weight and childhood asthma to heart attacks and dementia. It must be recognised and treated as a public health issue. The cost of inaction is measured not only in lives lost, but in people not being able to live healthily and in billions drained from our economy every year. We must act now – and we must act together.”
The RCP report estimates that in 2019 alone, costs for healthcare, productivity losses and reduced quality of life due to air pollution cost the UK upwards of £27 billion – and may be as much as £50 billion when wider impacts, such as dementia, are accounted for.
Annual costs could still be up to £30 billion per year in 2040, despite pollutant exposures being projected to fall in coming years under current government policies, including Net Zero policies.
Air pollution could still be linked to around 30,000 deaths in 2025, compared to government estimates of the equivalent of between 29,000 and 43,000 deaths in the UK in 2019.
