Key information
Request reference number: MGLA060323-1777
Date of response:
Summary of request
You request
Please supply supporting information and from whom the Mayor has used to get information about how car emissions are the cause of cancer, asthma, dementia an any other diseases mentioned.
Our response
Studies have long shown the many adverse health issues associated with elevated pollution levels.
A 2022 authoritative evidence review continued to show the health impacts of traffic pollution, especially asthma in both children and adults.
Previous analysis has shown that London’s air pollution was estimated to lead to around 700 asthma hospital admissions from 2017 to 2019 in children in London, 7 per cent of all asthma admissions in children in London, and to around 900 asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) admissions from 2017 to 2019 in the elderly in London.
The growing health evidence now links air pollution to dementia shows how air pollution causes lung cancer in non-smokers and found particulate air pollution in unborn babies.
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.
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.
If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting
reference MGLA060323-1777.