30
Oct 2019
Research suggests air pollution ‘triggers hundreds more heart attacks and strokes’
Scientists at King’s College London looked at data from a selection of nine cities in England and calculated that days with above average pollution levels would see an additional 124 cardiac arrests over the course of 12 months.
Simon Stevens of NHS England said it was evidence of “a health emergency”.
He added “It’s clear that the climate emergency is in fact also a health emergency. Since these avoidable deaths are happening now – not in 2025 or 2050 – together we need to act now.”
On days that showed high pollution levels, it was calculated that there would be a total of 231 further hospital admissions for strokes and an additional 193 adults and children admitted to hospital for asthma treatment.
Dr Heather Walton of King’s College London’s Environmental Research Group, said policies on the reduction of air pollution focussed mainly on effects which were connected to life expectancy, adding “However, health studies show clear links with a much wider range of health effects”.
Among the long-term risks associated with high pollution levels are low birth weight and stunted lung growth.
The research also suggests that reducing air pollution by 20 per cent would decrease incidents of lung cancer by between 5 and 7 per cent across the nine cities surveyed.
A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it was “Taking urgent action to improve air quality and tackle pollution” and that new legislation would “increase local powers to address key sources of air pollution.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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