There is much vital work left to do in dealing with air pollution

The health effects of air pollution on populations around the globe are clear, writes Samuel Webb

Delhi schools reopen in November after remaining closed for nearly 15 days due to a spike in air pollution (Reuters)

A pair of new studies have laid bare the jaw-dropping extent of the effect air pollution is having on the health of city-dwellers across the globe.

The research from George Washington University in the US found approximately 86 per cent of people living in urban areas across the globe, or roughly 2.5 billion people, are exposed to unhealthy particulate matter levels, leading to 1.8 million excess deaths in cities globally in 2019.

Additionally, nearly two million asthma cases among children worldwide were attributable to nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant mainly emitted by vehicles, the energy industry, and industrial manufacturing, in 2019. Two-thirds of these cases occurred in urban areas.

In December 2020 a landmark inquest in London found air pollution made a material contribution to the death of nine-year-old schoolgirl Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2013.

Ella, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, southeast London, became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. A heartbreaking case.

But such air quality is far from unusual. A recent analysis from Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation found more than 250,000 children in the UK in 2019 were born in areas where levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exceeded World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations from 2005.

Nearly a third (29 per cent) of hospitals in England are located in polluted areas, including 71 maternity units where an estimated 183,979 babies are born each year. Newham Council in London topped the charts as having the worst levels of air pollution followed by the City of London and Waltham Forest councils. But it isn’t just large cities affected – St Albans and Windsor also have high levels of air pollution.

The issue has even become a plotline in Coronation Street – in August 12-year-old character Liam Connor Jr, played by Charlie Wrenshall, learnt that he had suffered an asthma attack, which the doctor believed could have been triggered by traffic fumes.

The solution is simple: reduce emissions, and thereby reduce particulate matter levels. The George Washington University researchers found paediatric asthma cases linked to NO2 in urban areas dropped between 2000 and 2019, potentially due to tougher clean air regulations put in place by higher-income countries.

Meanwhile, dirty air, and particularly NO2 pollution, has been rising in southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and represent a huge public health burden. It is clear that action needs to be taken – action that campaigners have been calling for repeatedly.