To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has analysis to show by how much particulate matter emissions need to be reduced in order to reduce premature deaths caused by air pollution in the UK by half.
Answered on
19 May 2022
No specific analysis has been undertaken. However, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants has assessed the long-term exposure to man-made air pollution in the United Kingdom, based on studies reporting associations of mortality risk with fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. It was estimated that for a one microgram per cubic metre reduction in nitrogen dioxide, approximately 420,000 to 903,000 life years could be saved in the UK over the next 106 years, associated with an increase in life expectancy at birth of two to five days.