Effects Of Air Pollution On Health In The UK - New COMEAP Report
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The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) has today published its assessment of the effects on mortality of long-term exposure to air pollution in the UK.
Using 2008 data and some simplifying assumptions, the burden of human-made particulate matter (measured as PM2.5) on the mortality of the UK population, was estimated as a loss of 340,000 years of life in 2008. This loss of life is an effect equivalent to 29,000 deaths.
However, the Committee considers it very unlikely that this represents the number of individuals affected. Instead it speculates that air pollution, acting together with other factors, may have made some smaller contribution to the earlier deaths of up to 200,000 people. If this number were affected, the average loss of life due to air pollution would have been less than 2 years each, though the actual amount would vary between individuals. The burden can also be represented as a loss of life expectancy from birth of 6 months (as an average across all births).
The report also predicts that if the annual average concentration of particulate matter (measured as PM2.5) were to be reduced by 1 microgram per cubic metre, there would be an increase in life expectancy from birth of about 20 days. In addition, 4 million years of life would be gained over the next 100 years by people living in the UK. If it were possible to remove all human-made particulate matter, the predicted gain would be 36.5 million life years over the same time period, and an increase in life expectancy from birth of 6 months.
A copy of the report can be found on the Committee’s new website using the link below.

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Item date 21/12/2010

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