Air pollution will be linked to 30,000 deaths in UK in 2025, leading doctors warn

Air pollution will be linked to around 30,000 deaths this year only in the United Kingdom, with 99% of the population breathed in “Toxic Air”, have warned doctors.

There is “no safe level” atmospheric pollution, which negatively affects almost all organs of the body, according to a new report of the Royal College of Doctors (RCP).

Although emissions have decreased significantly in recent decades, even low concentrations of air pollution can have impacts on fetal development, cancer,, heart disease,, strokemental health conditions and dementiawarns the report.

Doctors believe that air pollution has an economic cost of 27 billion pounds sterling per year in health costs and productivity losses, from up to 50 billion pounds sterling if wider impacts such as dementia are taken into account.

Thursday, more than 100 doctors, nurses, patients and activists will head to Downing Street from Great Ormond Street hospital for children to give a letter to the government to commit to “ambitious” air quality Targets.

“Air pollution can no longer be considered a simple environmental problem – it is a public health crisis,” said RCP president, Dr. Mumtaz Patel.

“We lose tens of thousands of lives each year with something that is mainly avoidable and the financial cost is a price that we simply cannot allow ourselves to continue to pay.

“We would not accept 30,000 avoidable deaths from any other cause. We must treat clean air with the same gravity as we treat drinking water or safe food. It is a fundamental human right – and a vital investment in our economic future. ”

In a preface to the report, the chief professor of England SIR Chris Whitty warned that air pollution remains the most important environmental threat to health, causing impacts felt throughout people’s lives.

Professor Sir Chris said: “It is a health area where the United Kingdom has made substantial progress in the past three decades with concentrations of several of the main ones polluting Falling quickly, but it remains a major cause of poor chronic health as well as premature mortality.

“Additional progress in outdoor air pollution will occur if we decide to do so, but will not occur without practical changes and achievable to heating, transport and industry in particular. Air pollution affects everyone and is everyone’s business. ”

Exposure to air pollution can shorten the lives of people of 1.8 years – which is “just behind some of the main causes of death and illness in the world”, including cancer and smoking, indicates the report.

A previous study by the UK Health Security Agency in 2022 estimated that air pollution was responsible for 29,000 to 43,000 deaths per year in the United Kingdom in adults over 30.

The RCP estimates that it will be linked to 30,000 avoidable deaths this year, compared to around 40,000 in 2016.

Exposure to air pollution is unevenly distributed in the United Kingdom, the report indicates. While urban areas tend to have higher concentrations of traffic -related pollution, rural locations often experience air pollution linked to specific activities, such as massive fuel or wood combustion, agriculture, road transport or forest and lands fires.

The search commissioned by the town hall in 2023 revealed that ethnic minorities and the poorest families were the most likely to live in the regions of London with the most dangerously polluted air.

The RCP urges ministers to “recognize air pollution As a key public health problem», With the Asthma And Lung Uk Charity also among those who call for more strict clean air laws.

A new survey of the charitable organization suggests that a person in five suffering from pulmonary conditions has undergone potentially fatal asthma attacks and serious push of disease due to air pollution.

According to the survey, more than half of 8,000 patients in the United Kingdom said that air pollution had left them out of breath.

“For millions living with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (MPOC), air pollution can be fatal, but many people ignore the toll he has on the health of the country,” said Sarah Sleet, general manager of the charity.

“Toxic air is a major engine of the respiratory conditions and can cause lung cancer and trigger asthma attacks, as well as pulmonary conditions such as Mpoc, exacerbating symptoms such as shortness of breath, whistling breathing and cough.

“Despite the enormous personal and financial costs of air pollution, the government has not yet shown the political will to fight this crisis.”

And a Southampton expert warned that the nation could enter a “microplastic style crisis”.

Dr. Thom Daniels, respiratory doctor consultant at the Southampton University Hospital, said: “Although pollution of external air is widely recognized and understood, the dangers of indoor air pollution remain largely neglected – and I worry that we doze in another microplastic style crisis if we do not act now.”

Next month, a group of inter-party deputies should reintroduce an invoice which aims to make pure air a human right under British law and to oblige ministers to make clean air throughout England by 2030. The Green MP Sian Berry will present the bill to the municipalities on July 1.

Nicknamed “Law’s Law”, the proposed legislation is named after Ella Ado-Kissi-DebrahWho lived only meters of the South Busy circular road in Lewisham and died at the age of nine after undergoing a deadly asthma attack in February 2013.

It has become the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death Following a historic investigation in 2020.