Climate change policies reduce air pollution and increase physical activity: Benefits, costs, inequalities, and indoor exposures.

The burden of diseases attributable to air pollution is comparable to those of global health risks such as unhealthy diets and tobacco smoking, with many air pollution sources also emitting climate heating gases. In this UK study we estimated the co-benefits of Net Zero (NZ) climate policy on the health benefits of air pollution reduction, increased active travel, outdoor exposure inequalities and indoor air pollution changes. The study focused on two of the largest UK sources, road transport and building heating, with comparisons made between NZ and UK existing policy, referred to as Business as Usual (BAU).

Can the UK meet the World Health Organization PM interim target of 10 μg m by 2030?

The recent United Kingdom (UK) Environment Act consultation had the intention of setting two targets for PM (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm), one related to meeting an annual average concentration and the second to reducing population exposure. As part of the consultation, predictions of PM concentrations in 2030 were made by combining European Union (EU) and UK government's emissions forecasts, with the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) Net Zero vehicle forecasts, and in London with the addition of local policies based on the London Environment Strategy (LES).

Associations between air pollution and mental health service use in dementia: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Little is known about the role of air pollution in how people with dementia use mental health services.

Objective: We examined longitudinal associations between air pollution exposure and mental health service use in people with dementia.

Methods: In 5024 people aged 65 years or older with dementia in South London, high resolution estimates of nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter (PM and PM) levels in ambient air were linked to residential addresses.

Associations between air pollutants and blood pressure in an ethnically diverse cohort of adolescents in London, England.

Longitudinal evidence on the association between air pollution and blood pressure (BP) in adolescence is scarce. We explored this association in an ethnically diverse cohort of schoolchildren. Sex-stratified, linear random-effects modelling was used to examine how modelled residential exposure to annual average nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM2.

Association between air pollution exposure and mental health service use among individuals with first presentations of psychotic and mood disorders: retrospective cohort study.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that air pollution exposure may adversely affect the brain and increase risk for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. However, little is known about the potential role of air pollution in severity and relapse following illness onset.

Aims: To examine the longitudinal association between residential air pollution exposure and mental health service use (an indicator of illness severity and relapse) among individuals with first presentations of psychotic and mood disorders.

Air pollution and trajectories of adolescent conduct problems: the roles of ethnicity and racism; evidence from the DASH longitudinal study.

Purpose: No known UK empirical research has investigated prospective associations between ambient air pollutants and conduct problems in adolescence. Ethnic minority children are disproportionately exposed to structural factors that could moderate any observed relationships. This prospective study examined whether exposure to PM and NO concentrations is associated with conduct problems in adolescence, and whether racism or ethnicity moderate such associations.

Mental health consequences of urban air pollution: prospective population-based longitudinal survey.

Purpose: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently ranked air pollution as the major environmental cause of premature death. However, the significant potential health and societal costs of poor mental health in relation to air quality are not represented in the WHO report due to limited evidence. We aimed to test the hypothesis that long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with poor mental health.

Impacts of air pollution and noise on risk of preterm birth and stillbirth in London.

Background: Evidence for associations between ambient air pollution and preterm birth and stillbirth is inconsistent. Road traffic produces both air pollutants and noise, but few studies have examined these co-exposures together and none to date with all-cause or cause-specific stillbirths.

Objectives: To analyse the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and noise at address level during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth and stillbirth.

Impact of London's low emission zone on air quality and children's respiratory health: a sequential annual cross-sectional study.

Background: Low emission zones (LEZ) are an increasingly common, but unevaluated, intervention aimed at improving urban air quality and public health. We investigated the impact of London's LEZ on air quality and children's respiratory health.

Methods: We did a sequential annual cross-sectional study of 2164 children aged 8-9 years attending primary schools between 2009-10 and 2013-14 in central London, UK, following the introduction of London's LEZ in February, 2008.

Are noise and air pollution related to the incidence of dementia? A cohort study in London, England.

Objective: To investigate whether the incidence of dementia is related to residential levels of air and noise pollution in London.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using primary care data.

Setting: 75 Greater London practices.

The Lancet Countdown on health benefits from the UK Climate Change Act: a modelling study for Great Britain.

Background: Climate change poses a dangerous and immediate threat to the health of populations in the UK and worldwide. We aimed to model different scenarios to assess the health co-benefits that result from mitigation actions.

Methods: In this modelling study, we combined a detailed techno-economic energy systems model (UK TIMES), air pollutant emission inventories, a sophisticated air pollution model (Community Multi-scale Air Quality), and previously published associations between concentrations and health outcomes.

Impact of London's road traffic air and noise pollution on birth weight: retrospective population based cohort study.

 To investigate the relation between exposure to both air and noise pollution from road traffic and birth weight outcomes. Retrospective population based cohort study. Greater London and surrounding counties up to the M25 motorway (2317 km), UK, from 2006 to 2010.

Air pollution, ethnicity and telomere length in east London schoolchildren: An observational study.

Background: Short telomeres are associated with chronic disease and early mortality. Recent studies in adults suggest an association between telomere length and exposure to particulate matter, and that ethnicity may modify the relationship. However associations in children are unknown.

Traffic pollution and the incidence of cardiorespiratory outcomes in an adult cohort in London.

Objectives: The epidemiological evidence for adverse health effects of long-term exposure to air and noise pollution from traffic is not coherent. Further, the relative roles of background versus near traffic pollution concentrations in this process are unclear. We investigated relationships between modelled concentrations of air and noise pollution from traffic and incident cardiorespiratory disease in London.

Spatial and temporal associations of road traffic noise and air pollution in London: Implications for epidemiological studies.

Road traffic gives rise to noise and air pollution exposures, both of which are associated with adverse health effects especially for cardiovascular disease, but mechanisms may differ. Understanding the variability in correlations between these pollutants is essential to understand better their separate and joint effects on human health. We explored associations between modelled noise and air pollutants using different spatial units and area characteristics in London in 2003-2010.

Long-Term Exposure to Primary Traffic Pollutants and Lung Function in Children: Cross-Sectional Study and Meta-Analysis.

Background: There is widespread concern about the possible health effects of traffic-related air pollution. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a convenient marker of primary pollution. We investigated the associations between lung function and current residential exposure to a range of air pollutants (particularly NO2, NO, NOx and particulate matter) in London children.

Long-term exposure to traffic pollution and hospital admissions in London.

Evidence on the effects of long-term exposure to traffic pollution on health is inconsistent. In Greater London we examined associations between traffic pollution and emergency hospital admissions for cardio-respiratory diseases by applying linear and piecewise linear Poisson regression models in a small-area analysis. For both models the results for children and adults were close to unity.

Long-term traffic air and noise pollution in relation to mortality and hospital readmission among myocardial infarction survivors.

Background: There is relatively little evidence of health effects of long-term exposure to traffic-related pollution in susceptible populations. We investigated whether long-term exposure to traffic air and noise pollution was associated with all-cause mortality or hospital readmission for myocardial infarction (MI) among survivors of hospital admission for MI.

Methods: Patients from the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project database resident in Greater London (n = 1 8,138) were followed for death or readmission for MI.

Is long-term exposure to traffic pollution associated with mortality? A small-area study in London.

Long-term exposure to primary traffic pollutants may be harmful for health but few studies have investigated effects on mortality. We examined associations for six primary traffic pollutants with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in 2003-2010 at small-area level using linear and piecewise linear Poisson regression models. In linear models most pollutants showed negative or null association with all-cause, cardiovascular or respiratory mortality.