Pollution Free Cities: Estimating UK Deaths due to Local Particulate Air Pollution

Friday, August 24, 2012

Estimating UK Deaths due to Local Particulate Air Pollution

Statement on Estimating the Mortality Burden of Particulate Air Pollution at the Local Level (13 page pdf, Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), Aug. 2, 2012)

Also discussed here: Mortality burden of particulate air pollution And here: The Mortality Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution in the United Kingdom (108 page pdf, Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), 2010) (Press Release, Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), Aug. 2, 2012)

Today we review a statement from COMEAP calling for estimate of deaths attributable to air pollution at the local level across the UK. The statement assesses and analyses methods and uncertainties associated with this approach. Roadside emission sources were not included but only long term exposure to particulate pollution. Separating anthropogenic from natural sources of particulates is another uncertainty which must be

considered in the estimate of the health burden

Key Quotes:

“What is the mortality burden of air pollution on the local population?..The mortality burden is the effect on mortality attributable to air pollution at current levels; the statement considers the estimation of the mortality effects, in a given year, of long-term exposure to current levels of particulate pollution within the existing local population”

“air pollution also affects morbidity and that air pollution-related illness is an additional burden on the population”

“mortality of short-term exposure to other pollutants (e.g. ozone) ..understood to be much smaller than the mortality burden of long-term exposure to fine particles"

“We have recommended methods for use in estimating the local mortality burden of long-term exposure to particulate air pollution (as PM2.5)…these recommendations strike an appropriate balance between the simplicity of undertaking the calculations (both in terms of applying the method and the ease of access to the data required) and the likely accuracy of the resulting estimates”

“We suggest that the production of estimates of local burden for the whole of the UK at Local Authority level may be a cost-effective approach to this area of work”

“the modelling of PM2.5 levels used to calculate the UK’s mortality burden was based on data collected at urban and rural background, but not roadside, monitors across the UK in 2008”