Where in the UK has the worst air quality?

London, South Wales, and the West Midlands have the UK’s filthiest air

The terrifying effect air pollution has on the health of the UK has been laid bare by new research that reveals unborn babies have air pollution particles in their developing lungs and other vital organs as early as the first trimester.

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and Hasselt University, Belgium, studied air pollution nanoparticles, called black carbon or soot particles, and discovered they can reach the foetus – leading to stillbirth, pre-term birth, low-weight babies and disturbed brain development

Air pollution is the United Kingdom’s biggest environmental health threat, with outdoor pollutants estimated to contribute to 40,000 excess premature deaths per year according to a 2016 study by the Royal College of Physicians.

The economic cost is equally shocking, costing the UK economy more than £20 billion annually.

The health impacts of air pollution in the United Kingdom are linked to a range of diseases and health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke.

Within the areas of the United Kingdom found to exceed the government’s legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, the highest levels were found within the Greater London area, with the next highest levels of pollution in South Wales, the West Midlands area, and Glasgow, according to an analysis by environmental campaigners ClientEarth.

Also among the most polluted areas are the Eastern Zone, which includes Cambridge and Norwich, Southampton, and Edinburgh.

Fine particulate matter also presents a significant health hazard in the UK. In IQAir’s 2019 World Air Quality Report, the UK’s most polluted city was Chatham in England, followed by Stockton, Belfast, Christchurch, and Sheffield, all of which exceed the World Health Organisation’s recommended annual exposure limit by more than 25%.

The ground-breaking findings, published in Lancet Planetary Health, show that the newborn baby and its placenta are exposed to air pollution and black carbon nanoparticles proportionally to the mother’s exposure.

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen and Hasselt University also found nanoparticles cross the placenta into the foetus in the womb as early as the first trimester of pregnancy and get into its developing organs, including its liver, lungs, and brain.

Black carbon is a sooty black material released into the air from internal combustion engines, coal-fired power plants, and other sources that burn fossil fuel.

Previous studies by the Hasselt University team found that black carbon nanoparticles get into the placenta, but there was no solid evidence that these particles then entered the foetus.

Professor Tim Nawrot added: “We know that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and infancy has been linked with stillbirth, pre-term birth, low-weight babies and disturbed brain development, with consequences persisting throughout life.”

“We show in this study that the number of black carbon particles that get into the mother are passed on proportionally to the placenta and into the baby. This means that air quality regulation should recognise this transfer during gestation and act to protect the most susceptible stages of human development.”

To answer the question of whether these particles travel from the placenta to the foetus, Professor Nawrot linked up with Professor Paul Fowler whose team studies first and second-trimester human foetuses.

Professor Fowler said: “We all worried that if nanoparticles were getting into the foetus, then they might be directly affecting its development in the womb. What we have shown for the first time is that black carbon air pollution nanoparticles not only get into the first and second trimester placenta, but then also find their way into the organs of the developing foetus, including the liver and lungs.

“What is even more worrying is that these black carbon particles also get into the developing human brain. This means that it is possible for these nanoparticles to directly interact with control systems within human foetal organs and cells.”