For too many of us, the air we breathe is toxic, and the weight of evidence showing the health impact linked to air pollution is growing by the day. Lung conditions are the third biggest killer in the UK, but they aren’t being taken seriously enough. Your article on air pollution speeding up the progression of lung disease (11 August) points to yet another piece of evidence showing the worrying cumulative effect that poor air quality has on our health throughout our lifetimes.
This important research raises the alarm on how air pollution can speed up the progress of lung disease. And yet politicians are still watering down their promises on delivering a green agenda, which will directly jeopardise the health of future generations.
Lung conditions directly cost our health service £11bn annually. This will only get worse as air pollution’s accumulative impact on the nation’s lungs increases. We must act now to address this public health emergency, which contributes to up to 43,000 premature deaths a year.
That is why we are calling on the government to roll out a national programme for those who need it most, to transition to cleaner modes of transport through a targeted scrappage scheme. Clean air zones are one of the most effective ways to reduce air pollution fast, and it is imperative that councils don’t back down on implementing them. Nobody should be exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air.
Tim Dexter
Clean air lead, Asthma + Lung UK
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