Best poster for SMMI scholar at national meeting of the UK’s experts researching air pollution and health

SMMI scholar Natasha Easton has won the prize for best poster entitled: “Investigating the Chemical Nature of Port and Ship-Related PM” at the 2019 Annual UK Review Meeting on Outdoor and Indoor Air Pollution Research. The meeting was hosted by Public Health England and took place on 16 May in London.

This is the main national meeting of the UK’s leading experts and policy makers in the field of air pollution and health research.  The theme of this year’s meeting was 'Current and future perspectives on air quality and public health'.  The meeting brought together academics, government scientists and policy makers to present and discuss the latest research findings with the aim to:

• provide a platform to showcase research undertaken in the UK and abroad and to promote a joined-up approach, linking measures to tackle air quality with other determinants of health
• exchange information and interact with research groups and those involved in policy and regulatory development.

Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK and the Clean Air Strategy published in January sets out bold ambitions to reduce emissions from transport, at home and from farming and industry.  Natasha’s research addresses a crucial knowledge gap in the understanding of port and ship emissions and their impact in port city air quality, which is likely to become more important as shipping traffic increases and emissions from road traffic decreases over the coming years.

Natasha is a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral scholar based in the Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences.  Her interdisciplinary research is supervised by Dr Matt Loxham (Medicine), Prof Gavin Foster (FELS), Dr Steven Johnston (FEPS) and Prof Simon Cox (FEPS).