POOR people are more likely than the rich to suffer from respiratory diseases
caused by traffic fumes.
Simon Stevenson and his colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine took figures for deaths and hospital admissions in electoral
wards across the southeast of England caused by respiratory diseases, and
compared them with income in the area, the number of people owning cars and
levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air鈥攁 key pollutant produced by
traffic.
They found that in affluent districts, where car ownership is highest, there
were low levels of pollution and respiratory disease. In part, this was because
affluent regions were more likely to be rural. But even within large towns and
cities, the relationship between poverty and respiratory disease was still
strong, largely because poor areas had a higher density of roads and traffic.
鈥淧eople who live in poor areas suffer more from the effects of pollution,鈥� says
Stevenson.
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Campaigners against traffic say the study shows that affluent commuters cause
health problems for the poor by driving into work in inner-city areas. 鈥淭his
research shows that traffic pollution is mainly caused by the better-off,鈥� says
Roger Higman, the transport campaigner for Friends of the Earth. The findings
add to those showing a link between poverty and road accidents
(This Week, 8 November 1997, p 26).