Investigating the effect of air quality on health

Air pollution has been estimated to reduce average UK life expectancy by around 6 months, with annual costs of £19 billion. Understanding how it affects human health is a challenging statistical problem as data depend on both time and location and also on many features, and have complex correlations and structure.

The project, which is joint with the University of Glasgow and the UK Met Office, involves statisticians, air quality modellers, climate scientists and epidemiologists. The team will also benefit from Visiting Researcher Professor Alan Gelfand of Duke University, USA. The results from the research will inform government policies regarding air quality and environmental justice.

"An ambitious part of the project will evaluate the effect of exposure to air pollution on incidence of chronic diseases as a result of climate change, where the climate and resulting air quality will be projected to 2050 with the help of the UK Met Office?, said Sujit.

Dr Duncan Lee, leader of the Glasgow team, added: "This project will allow us to link air-quality and chronic diseases in the most rigorous statistical framework and in a spatially disaggregated fashion?.

Patrick Sachon, Health Business Manager at the Met Office made the following statement regarding the project. "The Met Office has a major interest in the relationships between the outdoor environment and health, and in particular we have a long standing interest in the relationship between air quality and health outcomes. In addition, the Met Office atmospheric composition team is interested in the modelling and validation of air pollution concentrations using the Met Office AQUM model. The Met Office will bring unique expertise to the project in delivering both the modelled air quality and climate projections data that are needed for this project."

The project will run for three years starting October 2012 and will fund two research fellows, one each in Southampton and Glasgow. Three international research workshops will be held during the project; two in Southampton and one in Glasgow.