Air pollution kills more than 20,500 people every year in the UK

Air pollution kills more than 20,500 people every year in the UK, research suggests.

Scientists behind a new Lancet report reveal microscopic particles released in vehicle emissions cause tens of thousands of Britons to die too soon.

Known as particulate matter (PM), the substances “float” unseen in the atmosphere.

Particles smaller than 2.5μm (PM2.5) - 400th of a millimeter - are thought to be particularly damaging due to them getting “lodged” in the lungs.

Inhaling the microscopic particles has been linked to everything from allergies and “lung dysfunction” to heart disease and evendeath, according to a government report.

PM2.5 comes about from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels for “electricity, transport and household heating”, the scientists wrote in the 2019 Lancet Countdown on health and climate change report.

Between 2016 and 2018, carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels rose by 2.6%.

On a global scale, exposure to PM2.5 is “the largest environmental risk factor for premature mortality”.

Inhaling these microscopic substances is said to have caused 2.9 million people worldwide to die too soon from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases in 2016 alone.

Of these, more than 440,000 deaths are thought to have been down to coal. And children may be particularly vulnerable.

More than 90% of youngsters are said to be exposed to PM2.5 levels above the World Health Organization’s safe limit.

This has been linked to lung damage, reduced organ growth and pneumonia. In later life, exposed youngsters may be more at risk of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Children are nearer to a vehicle’s exhaust,” report author Dr Nicholas Watts, from University College London, said.

“Their lungs are developing. Air pollution affects surfactants in the alveoli, which could reduce their breathing capacity by 10-to-12%,” Dr Watts said.

Alveoli are tiny sacs in the lungs where gas exchange takes place.

“The damage done in childhood is persistent and pervasive, with health consequences lasting for a lifetime,” Watts added.

In terms of heart health, air pollution like PM2.5 can cause the blood vessel walls to narrow and harden, according to the British Heart Foundation. It may also restrict blood vessel movement, leading to hypertension.

And evidence suggests inhaling PM2.5 could make blood more likely to clot and disrupt the heart’s electrical rhythm.

“We treat patients who have strokes, heart attacks and life-threatening asthma caused by the toxic air we breathe”, Dr Sandy Robertson, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said.

But it may not all be bad news.

Renewable energy made up 45% of the total growth in power generation last year. Low-carbon electricity also accounted for a third of the total electricity generated worldwide in 2016.

And electricity as fuel for road transport grew by almost a third between 2015 and 2016 in the UK.

If the world meets the Paris Agreement targets, a child born in the UK today could see coal replaced with solar and wind energy by their sixth birthday.

And by their 31st birthday, they could be living in a net-zero emission world.

(Source: Yahoo News)

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