Air Pollution: Greater Manchester

(asked on 28th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of air pollution on (a) incidences of asthma and (b) asthma hospitalisation rates for (i) children and (ii) adults living in Greater Manchester in each of the last three years.


This question was answered on 4th April 2017

In 2010, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP) published a statement on the evidence linking air pollution with asthma. The evidence confirmed that exposure to ambient concentrations of air pollutants is associated with an increase in exacerbations of asthma in those who already have the condition. The evidence for air pollution causing new cases of asthma is less clear. However, COMEAP concluded that it is possible that air pollution plays a part in the induction of asthma in some individuals who live near busy roads, particularly roads carrying high numbers of heavy goods vehicles.

No specific assessments of the potential effect of air pollution on incidences of asthma or asthma hospitalisation rates for children or adults living in Greater Manchester have been made. There are no plans for Public Health England to make an assessment of the potential effect of air pollution on incidences of asthma or asthma hospitalisation rates in Greater Manchester.

Reticulating Splines