A few years back in 2012 this article produced a seemingly scary figure. The researchers estimated that particulate matter from UK combustion emissions causes approximately 13,000 premature deaths a year.
When the source of emissions was analysed, transport emissions (from road and other transport) were found to be the biggest cause of death, causing approximately 7,500 premature deaths a year. Road transport alone is estimated to cause 4,900 deaths.
Power generation caused approximately 2,500 and industrial emissions approximately 830 premature deaths a year. A further 6,000 deaths are caused by non-UK emissions produced in the European Union.
There is no mention of any deaths at all from home heating! There was no attempt to give a scientific explanation for the figures, merely a vague pseudo-scientific waffle.
A few years later the figure had risen according to a number of statisticians working for the UK government "the range of central estimates of the mortality burden of long-term exposure to air pollution in 2013 in the UK was equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths at typical ages".
Furthertorturing detailed analysis of the data revealed that the figure for "annual equivalent attributable deaths" had now risen to an astonishing 44,750 - 52,500 deaths per year in the UK.
Surely this must be scary enough to allow the government to implement any policy they want to. Are the public fully behind all this? Approximately 500,000 people die in the UK every year so this suggests that 10% of all deaths are due to polluted air and yet not one death certificate mentions it as the cause.
When our internal combustion engine vehicles have all been taken away from us and replaced with much more expensive and less reliable electric powered ones will we actually notice any improvement in health. I doubt it. But by then it will be much too late to complain.
When the source of emissions was analysed, transport emissions (from road and other transport) were found to be the biggest cause of death, causing approximately 7,500 premature deaths a year. Road transport alone is estimated to cause 4,900 deaths.
Power generation caused approximately 2,500 and industrial emissions approximately 830 premature deaths a year. A further 6,000 deaths are caused by non-UK emissions produced in the European Union.
There is no mention of any deaths at all from home heating! There was no attempt to give a scientific explanation for the figures, merely a vague pseudo-scientific waffle.
A few years later the figure had risen according to a number of statisticians working for the UK government "the range of central estimates of the mortality burden of long-term exposure to air pollution in 2013 in the UK was equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths at typical ages".
Further
Surely this must be scary enough to allow the government to implement any policy they want to. Are the public fully behind all this? Approximately 500,000 people die in the UK every year so this suggests that 10% of all deaths are due to polluted air and yet not one death certificate mentions it as the cause.
When our internal combustion engine vehicles have all been taken away from us and replaced with much more expensive and less reliable electric powered ones will we actually notice any improvement in health. I doubt it. But by then it will be much too late to complain.
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