Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether attributable deaths is an alternative term used for premature deaths when referring to deaths caused by air pollution.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Long-term exposure to air pollution is understood to contribute to the risk of dying from certain conditions. The annual number of attributable deaths associated with long-term average concentrations of pollutants is not an estimate of the number of people whose untimely death is caused entirely by air pollution. Instead, it is a way of representing the effect of air pollution across the whole population.
In public health, ‘premature deaths’ is usually used to refer to deaths that occur before the average age of death in a population, before the age of 75 years old. This is not the same as ‘attributable deaths’, which represent the total mortality effect across the whole population, including those over 75 years old. It is likely that deaths attributable to air pollution will be disproportionately influenced by deaths at older ages, such as from cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the difference is between attributable deaths referring to air pollution and deaths reported on death certificates.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Long-term exposure to air pollution is understood to contribute to the risk of dying from certain conditions. The annual number of ‘attributable deaths’ associated with long-term average concentrations of pollutants is not an estimate of the number of people whose untimely death is caused entirely by air pollution. Instead, it is a way of representing the effect of air pollution across the whole population.
Causes of death on death certificates record the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation. Generally, it is unusual for wider risk factors, such as exposure to air pollution, to be recorded among causes of death.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people died from air pollution in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England in each year since 2018.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman Parliamentary Question of 19th April is attached.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of all adult deaths in England in 2019 from (a) heart disease, (b) stroke, (c) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (d) lung cancer and (e) dementia and Alzheimer's disease were caused by air pollution.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman Parliamentary Question of 19th April is attached.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people died from air pollution in (a) England and (b) North Ireland in each year since 2017.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman Parliamentary Question of 19th April is attached.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many attributable deaths there were from fine particulate matter, PM2.5, were there in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber, and (j) England in each year since 2018 using COMEAP's 2022 methodology.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information is not held in the format requested. The following table shows the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution, measured as fine particulate matter, PM2.5 for 2018 to 2021, in each region as a percentage.
Region | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
East Midlands | 6.7 | 7.4 | 5.2 | 5.6 |
East of England | 7.6 | 7.6 | 5.8 | 5.5 |
Greater London | 9.0 | 8.8 | 7.1 | 6.5 |
North East | 5.2 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 4.8 |
North West | 5.9 | 6.2 | 5.0 | 5.3 |
South East | 7.7 | 7.2 | 6.0 | 5.4 |
South West | 6.1 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 5.1 |
West Midlands | 6.8 | 7.3 | 5.4 | 5.5 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 6.1 | 6.6 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
England | 7.1 | 7.1 | 5.6 | 5.5 |
Note:
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of The Public Health Outcome Framework 3.01 fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution in (a) the London Borough of Barnet, (b) Greater London and (c) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2020, the fraction of mortality assessed as attributable to particulate air pollution was 6.6% in the London Borough of Barnet, 7.1% in Greater London and 5.6% in England.
We have consulted on a revised plan for reducing national emissions of key pollutants by 2030 and we will also set two targets to improve air quality, as required under the Environment Act 2021. The London Air Quality and Health Delivery Group has been established, with membership from health bodies, national and local government and the Greater London Authority, to deliver joint efforts on air quality across the health and care system.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of deaths that were attributed to air pollution in (a) Plymouth, (b) the South West and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The data is not available in the format requested. However, the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England includes an indicator for air pollution expressed as the proportion of adult mortality attributable to long-term exposure to human-made particulate air pollution, which is updated annually.
The following table shows the proportion of adult mortality attributable to long-term exposure to human made particulate air pollution in Plymouth, the South West region and England in each year between 2016 and 2019.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Plymouth | 4.6% | 4.2% | 4.0% | 3.9% |
South West | 4.8% | 4.4% | 4.4% | 4.1% |
England | 5.4% | 5.1% | 5.2% | 5.1% |
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, further to the Answer of 25 November 2022 to Question 81866 on Air Pollution: Death, what his timetable is for publishing the Public Health Indicator PHOF-D01 for 2020 values.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Public Health Outcomes Framework indicator (PHOF) - D01 is usually updated annually in February by the UK Health Security Agency. However, due to changes in the methodology following the publication of the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants statement in 2022, the update for 2020 values will be published in May 2022.