Asthma: Air Pollution

(asked on 7th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the recent trends in air quality on the well being of people with a diagnosis of asthma across the UK.


Answered by
Seema Kennedy Portrait
Seema Kennedy
This question was answered on 13th May 2019

Short-term peaks of air pollution are associated with a range of adverse health effects including exacerbation of asthma.

Public Health England (PHE) has not made any specific assessment of the impact of air pollution on the well-being of people with asthma diagnosis, across the United Kingdom.

PHE is continuously developing and reviewing the evidence on the health effects of air pollution, to help reduce the health burden attributable to air pollution in England, for the general population and vulnerable groups, including those suffering from asthma. Examples of this can be seen at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/committee-on-the-medical-effects-of-air-pollutants-comeap

PHE will start a project in September 2019 to examine any associations in seasonal variation of fungal spores with asthma incidence that may also consider pollution levels.

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