Air pollution can harm health throughout life – report

Exposure to air pollution can harm health throughout the whole course of a person’s life, a study has argued, affecting foetal development through to increasing the risk early death.

The report was commissioned by the Greater London Authority via Imperial Projects and carried out by researchers from Imperial College London’s Environmental Research Group.

The authors looked at studies focused on the links between air pollution and ill health, including pollutants such as black carbon (or soot), small particulate matter (PM2.5), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Nitrogen Monoxide (NO), and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2).

They concluded that air pollution, first, affects fertility by lowering sperm count and motility. Air pollution can also impair normal foetal development in the womb, increasing the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight and pre-term births.

However, its effects can continue well into old age, increasing the risk of stroke, dementia, cancer, multiple longer-term illness including respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and early death.

Children living in London were at particular at risk of developing lifelong, chronic conditions, including poorly developed lungs, asthma, high blood pressure, inattention and hyperactivity, and mental illness, the researchers argued.

Worries about the health effects of air pollution have been heightened ever since the death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah in 2013, who lived near London’s South Circular ring-road and was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.

Dr Gary Fuller, senior lecturer in air quality measurement from Imperial’s Environmental Research Group and lead author of the report, said: “There is increasing evidence that impacts of air pollution are hiding in plain sight in the burden of chronic illness that affects so many people.

“These air pollution impacts affect our quality of life and have a large cost to society through additional health and social care costs, as well our ability to learn, work and contribute to society.

“The latest evidence, reflected in the new WHO guidelines, tell us that current levels of air pollution will be affecting everyone in London, including those living in the least polluted suburbs, and especially those with pre-existing vulnerabilities,” he added.