Years of breathing traffic pollution increases death rates in neighbourhoods, towns and cities, according to an international evidence review.
The information came from many sources including a study on more than 100,000 female teachers and school administrators in California, a 40-year analysis of nearly 400,000 people in the UK census, and more than 800,000 English general practitioner records, along with analysis of the whole populations of Rome and Barcelona and studies on elderly people in Denmark and Japan.
Having assimilated this evidence, the review led by the US Health Effects Institute (HEI) concluded,with high confidence, that strong connections existed between traffic and road air pollution and increased death rates. A wider HEI review in 2022 reached similar conclusions for connections with lung cancer and cases of new asthma in children and adults.
The latest review scrutinised nearly 200 research studies that looked at air pollution and death rates including those from heart disease, stroke, respiratory problems and lung cancer. Specifically the review looked at the link with air pollution from traffic, adding to last year’s World Health Organization assessment.
We often see estimates for early deaths from breathing polluted air. For the UK this is equivalent to between 29,000 and 43,000 deaths for adults, aged 30 and over, in 2019. For London the latest annual figure is between 3,600 and 4,100 attributable deaths. The new review will add to the evidence that feeds into these assessments and will improve estimates for the changes from policies, such as low emission zones.
Looking to the future, even with electrification, traffic will still produce particle pollution from the wear of tyres, roads, and to a lesser extent brakes. The review panel found that few studies had addressed this.
Dr Hanna Boogaard, who led the review, said: “Air quality regulations and improvements in vehicular emission-control technologies have contributed to decreases, however, those improvements do not fully offset the growth and increased congestion of the world’s motor vehicles.
“To date, almost all traffic pollution regulations are targeting tailpipe emissions. Vehicles also pollute by resuspending road dust, abrading road surfaces, and wearing brakes and tyres, which leads to emissions of metals such as iron and copper.”
Prof Barbara Hoffmann of the University of Düsseldorf, one of the authors of the review, said: “The evidence is very clear: road traffic does not only kill via accidents but also via the air pollution vehicles emit.”
This week, a report from Imperial College London has highlighted that air pollution damages people’s health from before birth and into old age. Evidence in the report shows current levels of air pollution will be affecting everyone in London, including those living in the least polluted suburbs, and especially those with pre-existing vulnerabilities.
