Recent headlines
are claiming
British children
are being exposed
to illegal levels
of toxic air.
London mayor
Sadiq Khan
has declared
a public health
emergency
in the capital !
He quotes studies
claiming that 9,000
Londoners are
dying prematurely,
every year,
because of the
poor air quality.
Estimates of
national fatalities
from air pollution
have increased
from 40,000 to
60,000 per year.
The Great Smog
of December 1952,
a true environmental
catastrophe, killed
4,000 people
in London.
Is air pollution now
so much worse
that it's killing
9,000 people a year,
in London and
5 to 7 times
as many deaths
nationwide?
Of course not.
The 9,000 number
is based only on
computer games,
not actual deaths.
The figures
are derived
from calculations
of the
“years of life” lost
across the whole
population, resulting
from the increased
risks associated with
particular pollutants.
Cambridge professor
David Spiegelhalter
presented
the wild guess
computer model
statistics in a
much simpler way:
The average loss
of life expectancy
over the whole
adult population
is three days !
London air pollution
was mainly soot
and sulphur oxides
from burning coal
in 1970.
Now the pollution
is particulates and
nitrogen oxides,
mainly from diesel
engine cars and trucks.
But the particulates
and nitrogen oxide
levels have been falling
steadily for decades
– down by about 75%
since 1970.
Air pollution
in London today
is about
one eighth
of the pollution
in Delhi (India),
one quarter
of Beijing (China),
and lower than
Paris (France).
Brighton
respiratory
physician
Anthony Frew
says the claim
of 9,000 deaths
in London is a
“zombie statistic
– however much
you try to kill it,
it comes back
and it’s simply
not true”.
UK pollution charts:
