Meeting of the Parliament 17 April 2018
Air quality does not receive enough attention but has a profound effect not only on our health but on Scotland’s green credentials.
As most of us are aware, numerous policies and strategies at local, national and international levels—from the WHO and European guidelines through to local development plans—feed into the criteria for air quality. In 2015, the Scottish Government published its cleaner air for Scotland strategy, which, it should be noted, adopted the WHO guideline value for fine particulate matter rather than the less stringent European value. That is important, as the potential cost of air pollution on health is great in the long and short term.
Research on the cardiovascular effects of air pollution dates back to the 1950s and the major smog that occurred in London in 1952. A comparison of the data for 1951 and 1952 shows that an estimated 4,000 extra premature deaths can be attributed to respiratory and cardiovascular disease during the three weeks following the beginning of the smog.
Many studies since then have built upon that link. Research that was funded by the British Heart Foundation in 2013 found a link between
“increased hospitalisation rates and poor short-term air quality in those with heart failure.”
In 2014, the European study of cohorts for air pollution effects found that long-term exposure to particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres—PM2.5—is strongly linked to heart attacks and angina.
It was reported last week that researchers studying PM2.5 levels in Utah concluded that even short-term increases in air pollution can be linked to a higher risk of developing viral chest infections, which have the potential to turn into conditions such as bronchitis. The researchers found that, in some cases, the infections proved deadly: 26 children and 81 adults died within a month of diagnosis during the 1999 to 2016 period that was studied. That can be seen in the context of the global burden of disease study 2012, which stated that outdoor air pollution was the ninth leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In addition, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states that urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050, ahead of dirty water and lack of sanitation.
The situation in the UK has been exacerbated by the substantial increase in the number of cars on the roads, which rose from 19 million in 1980 to 34.5 million in 2012, and the ill-judged promotion of diesel cars, which have lower carbon dioxide emissions but higher, and toxic, nitrogen dioxide emissions. The Scottish Government’s proposal to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 is a sensible and proactive step that will bring huge benefits, even as we move away from the current state of affairs over the next 14 years. There will clearly need to be investment in alternative modes of transport. To that end, the promised extension of the electric charging infrastructure is to be welcomed warmly.
I accept that the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee has questions about the implementation of low-emission zones. It is right to question that. It is to be hoped that the Scottish Government’s strengthening of its cleaner air for Scotland governance group will provide reassurance on its commitment to that cause. In appointing the British Heart Foundation and Professor Campbell Gemmell—an expert in science, policy and regulation—to the group, the Government is reinforcing its aim of having the cleanest air in Europe.
That announcement, which was made at the end of March, also set out further details of the financial support available for low-emission zones. More than 70 per cent of this year’s £10.8 million funding is going to support the retrofitting of more than 300 Glasgow buses—over 40 per cent of the city centre fleet.
My constituency has seen its share of air quality issues. Musselburgh High Street—the main thoroughfare in the town—has historically exceeded the annual NO2 mean objective. A detailed assessment in 2008 was followed in 2013 by an official council designation of the area from the Newbigging junction to the Bridge Street junction as an air quality management area. A subsequent assessment in 2014 found that road traffic was a principal source of the excess NO2. Given the importance of the High Street to the Musselburgh economy, and in light of the health issues that we know that air pollution can cause, it was clear that action had to be taken to improve the air quality in the area.
The 2014 assessment included a source apportionment exercise. That process assesses the sources of pollutants, confirms whether excesses of NO2 are due to road traffic, determines the extent to which different vehicle types are responsible for the emissions contributions, and quantifies what proportion of omissions is due to background or local emissions from busy roads in the local area. At one particular point in Musselburgh High Street, it was found that the highest proportion of emissions could be attributed to buses, which accounted for 38 per cent of emissions measured. In contrast, queueing traffic contributed the largest actual average proportion of emissions in all locations bar one, accounting for an average of 34 per cent.