Air Pollution: Health Hazards
(asked on 8th February 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 4 February 2019 to Question 212585 on Air Pollution: Health Hazards, what steps (a) his Department and (b) Public Health England are taking to compile sufficient evidence to enable further quantification.
The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) work programme is agreed annually to ensure this meets changing priorities. The committee is not scheduled to engage in further work on the differential health effects of particulate air pollution according to source or components. The Committee’s work programme is reviewed annually to ensure that the work is based on existing priorities. Current topics being considered by COMEAP are available at the following link:
Recent assessments have been undertaken of the health effects of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture in the United Kingdom. This was based on studies reporting associations of mortality risk with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-effects-on-mortality
Recent reviews by the Health Effects Institute and World Health Organization of 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 can be viewed at the following links:
https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles