Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have that fumes from motor vehicles cause (1) stunted lung growth in children, and (2) premature death.

Exposure to traffic related air pollution is associated with both effects on lung growth and mortality, with a number of organisations contributing to evidence. For example, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants highlighted in their statement from March 2015, Statement on the evidence for differential health effects of particulate matter according to source or components, that adverse health effects, including changes in lung function, are associated with exposure to traffic-derived pollutants. A copy of this statement is attached.

Additionally, The Royal College of Physicians’ and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reported evidence in February 2016 in Every Breath We Take: The Lifelong Impact Of Air Pollution that lung function growth in children is suppressed by long-term exposure to air pollution. A copy of this report is also attached.

The UK Health Security Agency has estimated that exposure to air pollution in the United Kingdom has an annual burden equivalent to 29,000 to 43,000 deaths.