Healthy air, healthy Wales vision
At the start of the year, the Welsh Government launched a consultation on a new Clean Air Act. Joseph Carter, our Head of Devolved Nations, explains the challenges of air pollution in Wales and considers whether the next government will deliver the healthy air, healthy Wales vision that’s been promised.
There is no safe level of air pollution - plain and simple. An air pollutant is any substance in the air that could harm people. Particulate matter, known as PM, and nitrogen dioxide are particularly damaging.
When people are exposed to high pollution levels, for example on a busy road or during a high pollution episode, they breathe these toxic materials into their lungs. Many people initially experience immediate symptoms such as irritated airways, feeling out of breath, and coughing.
People with a lung condition suffer further from high levels of air pollution. Such toxins can exacerbate symptoms, including triggering an asthma attack or a COPD flare-up. People with asthma may notice that they need to use their reliever inhaler more than normal when pollution levels are high.
Poor air quality has been linked to the development of several conditions, with growing evidence highlighting the high levels of air pollution impacting every level of society by increasing the chances of lung cancer, childhood asthma, miscarriage, premature birth/low birth weight, heart disease, dementia, mental health, obesity, and many other conditions.
Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to public health, second only to smoking. At a cost of £1bn per year to our NHS, air pollution is draining our resources, straining our health system, and cutting short over 2,000 lives a year in Wales.
This is a public health crisis.
What is the Welsh Government doing?
In August 2020 the Welsh Government launched their Clean Air Plan (Healthy Air, Healthy Wales) setting out the policy changes that would be needed to reduce air pollution, improve monitoring, and invest more in active travel. With the Welsh General Election just a few months away at the time, ministers published a White Paper for consultation on a new Clean Air Bill. The new law will include:
A Framework for future target: Giving Ministers the power to put World Health Organisation air pollution limits into law and give us the right to breathe.
Local action to tackle air pollution: Changing the way that air pollution is monitored locally, and data is collected; enable the introduction of Clean Air Zones and tackle domestic burning.
Anti-idling/exclusion zones: New powers to ban vehicle idling and roll out exclusions zones around schools to encourage active travel.
Guidance on private and public bodies to reduce their impact on air pollution: Introducing a duty on businesses and public sector bodies to reduce their own air pollution.
Next steps
We believe the new law is needed to help prevent people from developing a lung condition and protect people with existing lung conditions from dangerous spikes in pollution.
However, we are concerned that the outgoing government is not progressing this quickly enough. The First Minister had promised a Clean Air Act before the election but then delayed this due to the pandemic. We worry that, unless pressure is maintained around the need for swift action, it could become 2-3 years before we see any substantive changes being made to clean up our air and introduce our right to breathe.
As part of our Welsh manifesto, we are calling on all parties and candidates to commit to delivering a Clean Air Act within the first 100 days after the election. Unless this happens, we risk this issue being kicked into the political long-grass – which would leave thousands continuing to suffer due to poor quality air.
Please share our manifesto and ask your candidates to support the pledge.
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