Policies to improve air quality in the UK over the past 40 years have led to significant reductions in air pollution and associated mortality rates, a new study has found.
Policies to improve air quality in the UK over the past 40 years have led to significant reductions in air pollution and associated mortality rates, a new study has found.
Research led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) tracked the levels of emissions of a variety of air pollutants between 1970 and 2010 – a period in which there was a raft of national and European legislation to tackle pollution. Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) joined the CEH and the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh and Exeter to carry out this interdisciplinary study.
The research found that total annual emissions of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter such as soot), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) in the UK have all reduced substantially since 1970 – by between 58% and 93%.
Based on these reduced emissions levels, the percentage of deaths attributable to air pollution has also decreased since 1970. For PM2.5 the attributable fraction of mortality fell from 11.83% to 5.21%. For NO2 it fell from 5.32% to 2.96%.
Read more at University of Oxford
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