Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential for a link between toxic air and covid-19 symptoms.

We published a report on 1 July 2020 outlining the findings from the recent rapid Call for Evidence we ran with our Air Quality Expert Group, to ensure we can more fully understand the impact the pandemic had on air pollutant emissions, concentrations and human exposure: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/reports.php?report_id=1005.

In August 2020, we also published the findings of a study done by the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in collaboration with Defra, Public Health England and both air quality expert groups (Defra’s Air Quality Expert Group and DHSC’s Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants).

This research did not suggest a strong link between exposure to air pollution and mortality rates from Covid-19:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/methodologies/coronaviruscovid19relatedmortalityratesandtheeffectsofairpollutioninengland

In line with previous studies, this report shows that people who are at greater risk of severe illness from Covid-19 are also at most risk of exposure to air pollution, but the evidence is not strong enough to suggest that air pollution is having a direct link to the spread or severity of Covid-19. Nevertheless, it is clear, that improved air quality is an important measure in helping us to reduce the burden placed on people’s health.