AIR pollution kills up to 24 000 people each year in Britain, according to a
report commissioned by the government.
The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants says that low-level
ozone, created by sunlight acting on vehicle exhaust fumes, causes 12 500
premature deaths each year. Sulphur dioxide claims another 3500 lives.
Nearly four years ago calculations conducted for 快猫短视频
estimated that the fine particulates known as PM10s鈥攁lso mostly produced
by vehicles鈥攌ill around 10 000 people a year (鈥淒ying from too much dust鈥�,
快猫短视频, 12 March 1994, p12). The new report comes up with a
figure of 8100.
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The report also estimates the number of hospital admissions each year caused
by air pollution, attributing 10 500 to PM10s, 9900 to ozone and 3500 to sulphur
dioxide.
Kenneth Calman, the government鈥檚 Chief Medical Officer, says that most of the
victims of air pollution are already sick and may not have long to live. But
Stephen Holgate, an immunopharmacologist at the University of Southampton, who
led the inquiry, says he was shocked by the rates of death and disease.
In fact, members of Holgate鈥檚 committee fear that the true toll may be even
higher. 鈥淲hat we want to know is the risk to your health if you live in a city
like London all your life,鈥� says Jon Ayres of Birmingham鈥檚 Heartlands Hospital.
鈥淏ut we felt unable to measure the long-term effects of air pollution. There are
insufficient data. So it鈥檚 possible that our report will have underestimated the
real effect of air pollution.鈥�
Instead, Holgate鈥檚 team estimated the acute effects of pollution by
correlating daily monitored levels of various air pollutants with hospital
admissions and deaths from respiratory conditions.
The new figures have led to calls from environmental health pressure groups
for major cuts in road traffic. 鈥淭he government must deliver if this appalling
toll of death and ill health is to be brought under control,鈥� says Richard
Mills, secretary-general of the National Society for Clean Air.
