How clean is the air where you live?

How clean is the air where you live? Air pollution is rarely highlighted to prospective house buyers, but as air quality deteriorates and the link between pollutants and poor health strengthens, expect there to be increasing interest in maps such as this.

The map at aqicn.org/map/europe provides daily updates on air quality around Europe. Air quality is rated as good (satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk), moderate (moderate health concern for a small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution), unhealthy for sensitive groups (general public unlikely to be affected), unhealthy (everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects), very unhealthy (health warnings of emergency conditions – entire population more likely to be affected) or hazardous (everyone may experience more serious health effects).

An air quality index (AQI) is a number used by government agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become. Different countries have their own air quality indices, corresponding to different national air quality standards. Scientists at the IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany have established links between a serious heart condition and both night-time noise pollution and air pollution from fine particulates following a large-scale population study.

Subclinical atherosclerosis describes the early stages of arterial clogging and hardening (atherosclerosis), which may happen naturally over time but develop at different rates dependent on environmental factors. Avoiding atherosclerosis is the reason your doctor may advise you to avoid fatty burgers, sausages and biscuits and follow a low-cholesterol diet. This study shows that air and noise pollution have a similar damaging effect to gorging on greasy takeaways.

“This study is important because it says that both air pollution and noise pollution represent important health problems,” said Dr. Philip Harber, a professor of public health at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research. “In the past, some air pollution studies have been dismissed because critics said it was probably the noise pollution that caused the harm, and vice versa. Now we know that people who live near highways, for instance, are being harmed by air pollution and by noise pollution.”

Data was collected from a sample of 4814 participants over a three-year period. The results will be of interest to all in urban environments, even more so to those who already live near a busy motorway junction, or beneath a flight path.

What is particulate air pollution?

Particulates are a waste product from diesel combustion (what you might think of as ‘soot’), and have long been associated with a number of health problems. These tiny particles enter the lungs and, if small enough, enter the bloodstream where they can easily be carried to the brain and other organs. A number of studies have drawn links between diesel particulates and the incidence of childhood and adult asthma. The World Health Organisation officially classified diesel exhaust as a carcinogenin 2012, in relation to its contribution to lung cancer risk.

The results of the IUF study are particularly disturbing in the way they demonstrate that what may seem like small increases in the magnitude of particulate air pollution can dramatically increase risk of developing clinical atherosclerosis.

In the study, an increase of 2.3 microgrammes per cubic metre of atmospheric particulates was shown to increase the risk factor measured by 20%.
Despite these health worries, British and European legislated ‘acceptable limits’ for particulate air pollution can be as high as 20 microgrammes per cubic metre. Governments have faced strong criticism in relation to failure to meet legal limits on air pollution, and were found guilty under international law for breaches of limits designed to protect public health. As you’d expect, air pollution is worst in heavily congested areas – but that doesn’t mean it is mostly a problem on motorways. Oxford Street in London, where the average Saturday pedestrian footfall is 700,000 people, is within the top 15 polluted locations in the city for particulates.

What about noise pollution?

As part of our noise campaign we commissioned a survey of traffic noise in rural areas. Written by Lynn Sloman, an ETA trustee at the time and her colleagues at the Transport for Quality of Life consultancy, it used qualitative research to discover the impact that the increase in rural traffic has on our quality of life in rural Britain. Since then our nation has continued to lose areas of tranquility. Noise is unpleasant. That should be enough of a reason to want to minimise disruptive environmental noise, but if its not enough for you there are its sleep-depriving, stress-inducing and health-damaging effects also to consider, as this study points out.

The IAF study focussed particularly on road traffic noise. It measured thoracic aortic calcification (TAC, an indicator of subclinical atherosclerosis) and found that the burden of risk for TAC was increased by 8% for every 5 dB increase in noise levels. The average living room could have a night-time noise level of 40 dB, whereas traffic noise near highways can exceed 80 dB. If you live in one of the covered areas, you can use Defra’s interactive noise maps to find out what the level of noise is likely to be where you live.

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