Dirty air is the killer poisoning us all while the government just spouts hot air

(The Guardian, 25 Oct 2019) The climate emergency is a health emergency, and we are being poisoned in our towns every day.

Nine more people in Bristol and 13 in Derby are going to have a stroke because of air pollution. Dirty air will give 12 more people in Birmingham and 87 in London a heart attack. In Liverpool, seven extra children with asthma will be hospitalised, as will five more in Nottingham.

These stark figures from King’s College London on the impact of high pollution days on individual towns are a reminder that dirty air is a killer and that the climate emergency is a health emergency.

But it is also a clear warning that while the NHS and local government are gradually getting to grips with the air pollution crisis, piecemeal solutions will fail without massive government action.

Cutting air pollution by a fifth would result in 77 fewer children in Oxford and 150 in Southampton suffering low lung function each year. Twenty fewer people in Manchester and 17 in Liverpool would develop lung cancer.

Like the microscopic particles themselves, air pollution is sometimes difficult to detect in the climate emergency debate. It is certainly part of the narrative, but the immediacy and severity of its threat is yet to be highlighted fully by campaigners.

It is hard to think of a more compelling message than we are being poisoned in our own homes, right now, every day.

External link

The Guardian, 25 Oct 2019: Dirty air is the killer poisoning us all while the government just spouts hot air