Dear Christopher Leslie MP, As a member of your constituency, it has come to my attention that air pollution is causing a significant problem for public health in the area. Nottingham City Council has declared an Air Quality Management Area, which means air pollution is exceeding health-based European Union legal standards. Nationally, 29,000 premature deaths are attributable to air pollution each year, at 11.5 years early on average. Only smoking causes more premature deaths. The evidence for the severe health impacts of long-term exposure to air pollutants, primarily from road traffic, continues to build. Recent studies suggest exposure can cause asthma in children, permanently reduce lung capacity, and lower new born birth weights. I am now a supporter of the Healthy Air Campaign, backed by a national coalition of health, environment and transport NGOs that is tackling the public health crisis caused by air pollution. I’m writing to urge you to both support the campaign yourself (see healthyair.org.uk for more information), and to write to the Secretary of State for the Department of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, currently responsible for air quality, to ask the government to do the following: 1. Fund a national campaign raising public awareness of the impacts of air pollution on health, the causes and solutions 2. Launch a cross-department strategy to tackle air pollution that is led by the Cabinet Office (ensuring action on air pollution is included in all relevant departmental business plans by 2013 and including independently monitored performance measures with incentives and penalties for departments involved) 3. Introduce a national framework for Low Emission Zones, providing local authorities with the support (both funding and through policy guidance) to establish LEZs in urban areas by 2014. 4. Fund further research into the health impacts of air pollution through an appropriate body such as COMEAP (Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution). 5. Immediately cease all activities seeking to postpone or delay action on meeting legally binding EU air quality standards, or attempting to weaken those standards in the run up to and during the 2013 European Year of Air. A 2011 Environmental Audit Select Committee report was highly critical of the government’s track record of action on air pollution so far (see parliament.uk/eacom). Air pollution is an invisible killer and urgently needs action from government. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Greg Hewitt
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:08:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015