by Hannah Wakley
I attended the second day of the Joint Air Quality Initiative (JOAQUIN) conference at the University of Leicester today and I thought I'd share my notes with you, in case they are useful to other campaigners. JOAQUIN is an EU project, funded by INTERREG, the inter-regional branch of the European Development Fund that supports projects working on problems that do not respect national borders. The presentations covered the evidence of the health effects of air pollution and public engagement and policy.
Health effects
Firstly, we heard from Rob Beelen from Utrecht University who has been working on the ESCAPE project - the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects. This is a large EU project looking at the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution. They have studied and published on the following:
As you will have noticed, they had a very clear message that the current EU limit values for particulate matter do not represent a level of air pollution that is safe for human health; they found that even low concentrations of air pollution increase the risk of associated health problems.
The second speaker was Ross Anderson from King's College London, who has been working on REVIHAAP, the Review of Evidence on Health Aspects of Air Pollution. The results have been published and are aimed at policy-makers. He noted that in recent years there has been an accumulation of evidence for the health effects of air pollution, including for some diseases that weren't previously associated with it, like dementia. He also explained that the WHO guidelines for acceptable levels of air pollution are lower than the current EU limit values for particulates and they represent a level of risk considered to be acceptable, even though it is recognised that even low levels of air pollution have health impacts.
Public engagement and public policy
The second half of the presentations focussed on what can and should be done with the evidence of the effects of air pollution. Stevie Swenne, from the Flemish Environment Agency, explained that the path from awareness of the problem to behaviour change has to pass through the stages of evaluation, engagement, conversation and loyalty. Our advantage when we are talking about air pollution is that we have a very clear message and that we are all guilty of contributing to the problem. However, we also have to deal with the disadvantage of having a negative message and having to tackle a problem that does not respect the boundaries between cities or countries. JOAQUIN has set up a website called 'Cleaner Air, Better Health', to provide members of the public with information about air pollution. They have also been running stalls at events with colouring activities for children and leaflets for adults. They are currently developing an education package for children aged 9 - 12, which will soon be available in several European countries. At this point, Stevie Swenne invited a BBC journalist, Lucy Siegle, to comment on their efforts to engage the public. She responded that air pollution is a good story to be covered by television programmes, particularly when JOAQUIN are undertaking monitoring and they have a visual focus for the story, so they should not be shy about issuing press releases and contacting the media. She also suggested that we should include real families in news stories about air pollution, to make the data more relevant to people. Finally, she said that we cannot over-communicate!
The last presentation was about a 'decision support tool' that JOAQUIN are developing for policy-makers, to help local authorities to decide which policy measures may be suitable for tackling air pollution in their area. This will be available on their website by the end of the year. The tool allows people to enter certain keywords, such as 'NO2', and then provides them with a suggested list of policy measures, with examples of where each one has been implemented and the details of how effective it was at reducing pollution. The policy measures will be ranked according to scientific evaluation. A member of the audience pointed out that the Environment Agency of Austria already hosts a database of air pollution measures implemented in cities across Europe. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find it yet on their website but if you can see it please let me know!
The conference closed with the question: is it okay to be funny when talking about air pollution? CleanAir Asia's website about growing your nose hair certainly think so...
I attended the second day of the Joint Air Quality Initiative (JOAQUIN) conference at the University of Leicester today and I thought I'd share my notes with you, in case they are useful to other campaigners. JOAQUIN is an EU project, funded by INTERREG, the inter-regional branch of the European Development Fund that supports projects working on problems that do not respect national borders. The presentations covered the evidence of the health effects of air pollution and public engagement and policy.
Health effects
Firstly, we heard from Rob Beelen from Utrecht University who has been working on the ESCAPE project - the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects. This is a large EU project looking at the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution. They have studied and published on the following:
- Low birth weight:They have published findings in the Lancet that showed that air pollution is associated with low birth weight, particularly for the smallest particulate matter, PM 2.5. They also found an increased risk of low birth weight at concentrations of air pollution below the current EU limit.
- Coronary events in adults:Their findings published in the BMJ demonstrate that long-term exposure to particulate matter is associated with coronary events and again, this effect persists below current EU limit values.
- Lung cancer: They found that there is an association between exposure to PM 10 and PM 2.5 and an elevated risk of lung cancer. These findings are published in Lancet Oncology.
- Total mortality: They have also studied the effect of air pollution on natural cause mortality and their findings in the Lancet show that exposure to air pollution is associated with mortality, even at concentrations well below the current EU limit values.
- Cardiovascular disease mortality: Finally, they had studied the effect of air pollution on deaths from cardiovascular disease and they published their findings in Epidemiology. Here, they did not find a significant association, which they think may be because better healthcare is reducing deaths from this type of disease.
As you will have noticed, they had a very clear message that the current EU limit values for particulate matter do not represent a level of air pollution that is safe for human health; they found that even low concentrations of air pollution increase the risk of associated health problems.
The second speaker was Ross Anderson from King's College London, who has been working on REVIHAAP, the Review of Evidence on Health Aspects of Air Pollution. The results have been published and are aimed at policy-makers. He noted that in recent years there has been an accumulation of evidence for the health effects of air pollution, including for some diseases that weren't previously associated with it, like dementia. He also explained that the WHO guidelines for acceptable levels of air pollution are lower than the current EU limit values for particulates and they represent a level of risk considered to be acceptable, even though it is recognised that even low levels of air pollution have health impacts.
Public engagement and public policy
The second half of the presentations focussed on what can and should be done with the evidence of the effects of air pollution. Stevie Swenne, from the Flemish Environment Agency, explained that the path from awareness of the problem to behaviour change has to pass through the stages of evaluation, engagement, conversation and loyalty. Our advantage when we are talking about air pollution is that we have a very clear message and that we are all guilty of contributing to the problem. However, we also have to deal with the disadvantage of having a negative message and having to tackle a problem that does not respect the boundaries between cities or countries. JOAQUIN has set up a website called 'Cleaner Air, Better Health', to provide members of the public with information about air pollution. They have also been running stalls at events with colouring activities for children and leaflets for adults. They are currently developing an education package for children aged 9 - 12, which will soon be available in several European countries. At this point, Stevie Swenne invited a BBC journalist, Lucy Siegle, to comment on their efforts to engage the public. She responded that air pollution is a good story to be covered by television programmes, particularly when JOAQUIN are undertaking monitoring and they have a visual focus for the story, so they should not be shy about issuing press releases and contacting the media. She also suggested that we should include real families in news stories about air pollution, to make the data more relevant to people. Finally, she said that we cannot over-communicate!
The last presentation was about a 'decision support tool' that JOAQUIN are developing for policy-makers, to help local authorities to decide which policy measures may be suitable for tackling air pollution in their area. This will be available on their website by the end of the year. The tool allows people to enter certain keywords, such as 'NO2', and then provides them with a suggested list of policy measures, with examples of where each one has been implemented and the details of how effective it was at reducing pollution. The policy measures will be ranked according to scientific evaluation. A member of the audience pointed out that the Environment Agency of Austria already hosts a database of air pollution measures implemented in cities across Europe. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find it yet on their website but if you can see it please let me know!
The conference closed with the question: is it okay to be funny when talking about air pollution? CleanAir Asia's website about growing your nose hair certainly think so...