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Air pollution negatively affects almost every organ in the body and around 30,000 UK deaths will be linked to toxic air in 2025, according to a new report from leading doctors.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said that there is “no safe level” of air pollutants as it warned that around 99% of the UK population are breathing in “toxic air”.

Exposure to air pollution can shorten people’s lives by 1.8 years, which is “just behind some of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide”, including cancer and smoking, the authors wrote.

Health and Economic Burden

The report highlights some new research findings about air pollution and ill health over the last decade, including that even low concentrations of air pollution can have impacts on foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions, and dementia.

The report also highlights how air pollution is estimated to have an economic cost of £27 billion a year in healthcare costs and productivity losses.

This figure would be significantly higher — up to £50 billion — if wider impacts such as dementia are taken into account.

The College has called for ambitious action form Government to tackle the issue, as it urged ministers to “recognise air pollution as a key public health issue”.

Whitty: Air Pollution Remains Major Threat

In the foreword to the report, England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, said: “Further progress in outdoor air pollution will occur if we decide to make it, but will not happen without practical and achievable changes to heating, transport and industry in particular.”

Dr Mumtaz Patel, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Air pollution can no longer be seen as just an environmental issue – it’s a public health crisis.

“We are losing tens of thousands of lives every year to something that is mostly preventable, and the financial cost is a price we simply cannot afford to keep paying.

“We wouldn’t accept 30,000 preventable deaths from any other cause. We need to treat clean air with the same seriousness we treat clean water or safe food. It is a basic human right – and a vital investment in our economic future.”

Asthma and Lung Charities Raise Alarm

It comes as Asthma and Lung UK called for tougher clean air laws.

Air pollution has triggered potentially life-threatening asthma attacks and severe flare-ups of illness one in five people with lung conditions, according to a new poll by the charity.

More than half of 8000 UK patients with lung conditions said air pollution had left them feeling breathless, according to the survey.

Charity chief executive Sarah Sleet said: “Toxic air is a major driver of respiratory conditions and can cause lung cancer and trigger asthma attacks, as well as flare ups of lung conditions such as COPD, exacerbating symptoms such as breathlessness, wheezing, and coughing.

“Despite the huge personal and financial costs of air pollution, the government has not yet shown the political will to tackle this crisis.”

Indoor Air Concerns Rising

One expert from Southampton warned that the nation could be walking into a “microplastics-style crisis”. Dr Thom Daniels, consultant respiratory physician at University Hospital Southampton, said: “While outdoor air pollution is widely recognised and understood, the dangers of indoor air pollution remain largely overlooked – and I worry we’re sleepwalking into another microplastics-style crisis if we don’t act now.”

Next month a cross-party group of MPs said they will reintroduce a bill, named after 9-year-old schoolgirl who died from an asthma attack linked to air pollution, which aims to make clean air a human right under UK law.

Dubbed “Ella’s Law”, the proposed legislation is named after Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived 82ft from the busy South Circular Road in Lewisham and suffered the fatal asthma attack in February 2013.

She became the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death following a landmark inquest in 2020.

A government spokesperson said: “Air pollution is a public health issue, and we are committed to tackling this issue across the country.

“We have already provided £575 million to support local authorities to improve air quality and are developing a series of interventions to reduce emissions so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.”