Faculty of Medicine academics urge PM to not to discredit toxic air science
Two respiratory experts from the University of Southampton have joined a group of academics urging the Prime Minister to tell fellow politicians in his party to stop discrediting scientific facts about toxic air.
Professor Sir Stephen Holgate and Dr Matt Loxham co-signed the letter , which said some politicians do not believe in the science and have supported conspiracy theorists.
“A collapse in trust in the scientific process would be a disaster. We urge you to disassociate from these views and in no uncertain terms to tell your party colleague to not repeat or endorse them,” the letter said.
The group of 36 academics urged the PM “to join us in making the case for urgent action on air pollution.”
Both Professor Holgate and Dr Loxham have conducted various research studies into the effects of toxic air on health.
Dr Loxham has investigated the impact of poor air quality in underground railways and shipping docks, while Professor Holgate has long history of research into associations between airway damage and inflammation, and exposure to diesel combustion and ambient particulate matter, which has led to changes in government legislation, and national and regional policy.
He also gave key evidence in the 2020 inquest of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, of Lewisham, south-east London, who was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a factor in the cause of her death in 2013.
Professor Holgate said: “The politics around cleaning up the air has become politicised. There is a clear misunderstanding of how air pollution damages health. Rarely it is a primary driver of illness and death as was the case with Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah whose asthma was initiated by air pollution, and whose attacks and death were driven by this. She was highly unusual in having strong genetic drivers of her disease. Usually, like obesity, air pollution contributes to the acceleration of non-communicable diseases, but these have other factors feeding into causation such as diet, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors.
“Air pollution is nevertheless a major contributor to these diseases. The only reason that we were able to link Ella's death to pollution is that quite fortuitously there was a government air quality monitoring station close to her home and the local council had also set up their own monitors independently. So, in contrast to mean/average pollution levels that are modelled, what we are lacking to attributing air pollution directly to illness and death is a more granular assessment of what we are all exposed to locally where we live work and play.”
Dr Loxham said: “There is now an extremely large body of evidence which shows that air pollution makes a significant contribution to the shortening of lives, and to chronic diseases which impact on quality of life. There are a number of reasons why individual cases are almost never ascribed to air pollution, not least the fact that air pollution exposure combines with other factors to accelerate and exacerbate diseases known to be associated with air pollution. However, this should not be taken as representing uncertainty or doubt about whether air pollution exposure is important in the health of the public, and nor should it be taken as uncertainty about whether improving air quality will result in health benefits. The case for the need to improve air quality is clear.”