Imperial College London, globally renowned experts in air quality research, have looked at the health burden of air pollution in London. Their research found that in 2019, toxic air contributed to the premature deaths of around 4,000 Londoners. This includes deaths from all causes, including respiratory, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Like smoking, air pollution is seen as a contributory factor, so is rarely listed on death certificates. However, in a global first, in December 2020, Coroner Phillip Barlow ruled that a 9-year-old girl from Lewisham, South London died in 2013 as a direct result of air pollution, stating air pollution made a “material contribution to her death”.
The British Heart Foundation also found that living in many areas of London increases the risk of an early death by the equivalent of smoking 150 cigarettes a year.
The current ULEZ in central and inner London is projected to help avoid one million air pollution-related hospital admissions and save the NHS and social care sector £5bn by 2050.