Clean Air Day 2024

National Clean Air Day, on 20 June 2024, is an annual awareness-raising event that highlights how important it is for our health and the environment to have and breathe clean air.

The event, now in its seventh year, has gained significance as it looks to educate and inspire everyone to make changes in their lives to reduce air pollution. According to the environmental charity Global Action Plan, air pollution can harm every organ in the body, causing heart and lung disease, dementia and strokes.

With the introduction of legislation including the first Clean Air Act in 1956, government frameworks and, more recently, clean air zones, we have come a long way since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th Century and the Great Smog of London in 1952. But with a startling figure of between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths attributed to human-made air pollution in the UK every year, costing the NHS and social care an estimated £1.6 billion from 2017 to 2025, not to mention the impact on the economy running into the billions, we still have a long way to go (source: Air Pollution: Applying ‘All Our Health’, Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, 2022).

RHE Global Managing Director Rob Halford gives an insight into his personal experience of air pollution, how it has affected his family and why things need to change:

"In 1954, my father, William, moved from rural Dorset on his 20th birthday, to join the Metropolitan Police. He spent the next 45 years living and working in central London. First he was a police constable walking the beat, then in the 1980s, like many ex-coppers, he trained to become a London black cab driver. On retirement, William returned to his roots in Dorset and is now 90 years old. Sadly, the last 15 years of his retirement have been blighted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The doctors say William’s lungs are almost totally made up of scar tissue, a result of inhaling dilute sulphuric acid suspended in the air during the London smogs of the 1950s and early 1960s. The primary cause was sulphur dioxide (SO2) released by burning coal; this reacted with water (H2O) suspended in the damp London air to form sulphuric acid (H2SO4). The scarring started in the 1950s and is progressive; it won’t stop until there’s no lung tissue remaining. This means William cannot inhale enough air to move and is dependent on pure oxygen to stay alive. William’s lungs are also compromised by chronic emphysema, which doctors suspect is from long-term exposure to fine particulates in the London air, from coal dust and later from diesel engine fumes – like those from the old black cabs he used to drive. The emphysema means his lungs are constantly filling up with water that he cannot cough up, causing him great distress. This experience brings home to me the devastating impact of lung disease caused by environmental pollution and also the importance of local authority-led action to improve air quality for future generations."

To manage air quality, local authorities have a range of powers available, under planning, environmental health and permitting legislation.

RHE Global supports environmental health and local authority officers to provide a thorough and efficient service, through dedicated training courses and RIAMS Libraries. We also facilitate discussions and peer support through RIAMS Communities.

By Jeremy Manners, RIAMS Chief Editor and Robert Halford, MD and Founder of RHE Global Ltd.

Resources:

https://www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/campaigns/clean-air-day

Social media packs https://www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/campaigns/clean-air-day