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Pollution is ‘taking 10 years off the lives of Londoners'
Nicholas Cecil, Deputy Political Editor9 Feb 2010
Londoners are having up to 10 years wiped off their lives by poor air quality, a leading academic warned today.
Professor Frank Kelly, an environmental health expert from King's College, London, stressed that an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people in the capital were dying early each year due to pollution.
“In the worst cases, they could be dying up to 10 years early,” he said.
The small number of individuals suffering the largest loss of life, he added, were those with conditions such as respiratory or cardio-vascular problems. But thousands more were having months, or weeks knocked off their lives by pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide and particulates, blighting London.
Giving evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee, Professor Kelly called for action to clean up the capital's air particularly by cutting traffic.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Government and the boroughs had to act decisively to tackle pollution, he added, in the way the authorities had sought to combat obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse.
He said: “We need to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads by at least 20 to 30 per cent.”
He added that taxes, new incentives and restrictions or changes to London's fleet of buses may be needed to improve air quality.
Mr Johnson today warned Londoners to prepare for extreme weather such as flooding and heatwaves. He said scientific evidence suggested the capital would face hotter, drier summers, wetter winters and rising river levels.
Reader views (9)
Well then clean up your own frickin' air pollution...instead of trying to push carbon taxes/credits onto the rest of the world.
- Mauibrad, USA, 20/02/2010 20:15
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And if the pollution don't kill you,the inhabitants will.
- Eddie, London, 10/02/2010 08:09
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3000 - 5000 out of a population of 7/8 MILLION! Wow,
I'm really worried - not! Hysterical nonsense; get things
in perspective!
- Lb, Bromley, 10/02/2010 04:34
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Yet more hyperbole from supposed a scientist! Pollution is down by 80% over the last 30 years. Where is his data/charts? No wonder eco science has lost all credibility! I was born central London, have lived here on and off for 50 years, I get very tired of these 'shock' headlines.
- Andy P, London, England, 09/02/2010 18:17
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Good grief, if they think london is polluted they ought to look back to the late 1940's and 50's. That was pollution, sometimes the smog lasted for days. Didn't hurt me. Mind you, it might cut the cost of the old age pension bill. Te He!!! Synical or what.
- John Bandey, Cerilly . France, 09/02/2010 17:01
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Perspective please!
London was a smog bound death trap in my life time. The Clean Air Act 1956 has undoubtedly increased life expectancy so, "The small number of individuals.." who might be affected by other pollution is not of any great significance in the general scheme of things.
- Bj, East London, 09/02/2010 15:20
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Rather death than taxes, eh Keith? What nonsense, I would rather pay a little extra to improve air quality than die of the consequences of doing nothing.
But of course the air quality would already be much better if Boris hadn't scrapped the central low emissions zone, the increase in congestion charges for the dirtiest vehicles and actually spent money on making the existing bus fleet diesel-free rather than squandering it on his vanity Routemaster project.
Problem solved? Why am I not Mayor already?! Joking aside, this is a serious issue and the world's media will have a field day about this come 2012 just like they did in Beijing ala 'London air too dirty for our athletes' etc - watch this space!
- Marka, Bethnal Green, London, 09/02/2010 14:32
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Anyone who cares about the health of Londoners and our international reputation should heed Professor Kelly’s warnings. London needs tough measures like 'mini' Low Emissions Zones targeted at the most polluted roads, as well as funding to help small businesses and charities to convert their old vans.
"d hoc measures such as closing off of roads and enforcing traffic diversions on bad days are signs of failure. The Mayor has taken three backward steps on air pollution by delaying action against aging white vans, dropping the mid year inspections of black cabs and proposing to drop the western extension of the congestion zone. We need proactive schemes that tackle the problem's origin, rather than just cobbling together improvised measures on the day to guarantee acceptable air quality both for the Olympics and beyond.
- Darren Johnson Assembly Member, London, 09/02/2010 13:39
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Boris is planting lots of trees which will combat this. We don't need any more taxes
- Keith, London, 09/02/2010 13:18
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