Air Pollution
(asked on 8th January 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2018 to Question 174612 on Air Pollution, what plans his Department has to further study the effects of PM0.1 and PM1 particles on human health.
Recent assessments have been undertaken of the health effects of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture in the United Kingdom, but no separate assessments of the impact of the PM1 and PM0.1 components (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 1 or 0.1 microns, respectively) of particulate air pollution have been produced.
The reviews by the Health Effects Institute and the World Health Organization about the effects of different components of air pollution, including ultrafine particles (PM0.1), concluded that there is currently limited evidence on the effects on health of ultrafine particles. These reviews are available at the following link:
https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles
Currently, Public Health England has no plans to engage in work on the effects of PM1 and PM0.1 particles on human health over the coming year.