FOI - Air quality in LB Sutton [Jun 2023]

You request

1. Information regarding the damage to health in the London Borough of Sutton. Proof and scientific evidence with numbers or who and why is effected by your health claims.
2. Information regarding poorer Londoners are more affected by poorer air quality; scientific facts that wealthier Londoners breathe cleaner air.
3. You claim the Mayor has had a public consultation before the introduction of the expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). I’ve not seen any information regarding a public consultation and I’ve not been consulted. Please provide information on when I had the opportunity to be asked my thoughts on this scheme.
4. My ageing parents live in Eastbourne, they can't afford a new car and have told me they are no longer able to visit me due to the cost of driving into London so I will now be isolated from my family. Please provide facts from the public consultation that mental wellbeing has been taken into consideration.

Our response

Damage to health in the London Borough of Sutton

Studies have long shown the many adverse health issues associated with elevated pollution levels. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) published new global air quality guidelines to protect human health, updating its 2005 guidelines on the basis of a systematic review of the latest scientific evidence of how air pollution damages human health.

A 2022 authoritative evidence review continued to show the health impacts of traffic pollution, especially asthma in both children and adults.

The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), an independent body that advises the UK government on the health effects of air pollution, regularly reports on new evidence emerging in this field.

In April 2023, the Environmental Research Group, Imperial College London, published an 
updated evidence summary to include all additional independent and peer reviewed studies on the links between air pollution and ill health that have been published globally since the 2016 publication of the Royal College of Physicians report, 'Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution'.

This new review, commissioned by the GLA, highlighted the serious and life-limiting risks of air pollution on physical and mental health across the life course, with adverse health effects seen in relatively low air pollution environments, below the levels of pollution experienced in London. 

Regarding the specific statistic on premature deaths in London, in 2021 the GLA commissioned research from the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London to quantify the health burden of air pollution in London.

This research found that in 2019, in Greater London, 61,800 to 70,200 life years lost (the equivalent of between 3,600 to 4,100 attributable deaths) were estimated to be attributable to anthropogenic fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). In Sutton, between 101 and 118 premature deaths were found to be attributable to air pollution in 2019.

Poorer Londoners are more affected by poorer air quality

In 2021 the GLA commissioned research to analyse the relationship between exposure to air pollution, deprivation and ethnicity in London. It shows that, despite reductions since 2013, pollution levels in the most deprived areas of London are still 13 per cent higher than the least deprived areas. This report is available on the GLA website.

The GLA has recently commissioned and published an update to this report, which highlighted that unless further significant action is taken to reduce air pollution in London the difference in exposure to pollution experienced between the least and most deprived areas of London will remain. This report is available on the GLA website. 

Public consultation

The Mayor decided to expand the ULEZ London-wide following a public consultation that ran from 20 May to 29 July 2022. The consultation received nearly 58,000 responses. 

The consultation report that explains the analysis process, sets out the breakdown of responses and notes the themes from the consultation is available for everyone to read on the TfL and GLA websites. 

Examples of the marketing materials used to raise awareness of the consultation with 
Londoners and the full list of consultation questions is available on TfL’s consultation website.

The exact document is 'Appendix B – Marketing materials and consultation survey', which is available for download. The questions begin from page 19. 

Mental wellbeing

An Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) of the London-wide ULEZ proposals was conducted by independent consultants Jacobs Ltd and assessed potential health, environment, equality, and economic impacts of the scheme consultation proposals on different groups.
 
The IIA was undertaken at the same time as scheme development and fed into this as an
iterative process. It also included some final recommendations for TfL to consider. You can read the IIA on the TfL consultation website at the link provided above.

The full consultation report, which includes an analysis of the nearly 58,000 responses received and themes raised and a copy of the IIA is also available as Appendix 2 of the Mayoral Decision, which can be found on the GLA website at the link provided above. 

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA210623-0225.