UK Edition
Work from home to cut car pollution deaths, Oxford study suggests
Britons should work from home to help prevent 10,000 deaths from car pollution every year, an Oxford study suggests.
Researchers also urged families to do more of their shopping online - and to socialise virtually instead of meeting friends, a bid to reduce car journeys.
The study examined the health costs of air pollution, concluding that emissions from cars and vans are costing almost £6 billion year in damage - most of it due to diesel vehicles.
The research concludes that more than 10,000 premature deaths a year are being caused by pollutants from cars, such as nitrogen dioxide.
Nearly 90 per cent of all the health costs associated with pollution from cars and vans is down to diesel vehicles.
The authors of the report called for radical changes in lifestyles, even if that meant being confined to the home.
They said the “inconvenient truth” was that individuals needed to do more to reduce reliance on cars, and should stay at home more if they could not find a “cleaner travel mode”.
“Options you can do today include tele-shopping, tele-working, tele-conferencing or tele-socialising,” the study recommends.
Overall, around 40,000 premature deaths a year have been linked to all forms of air pollution.
The research, carried out with Bath University, found the greatest health costs came from cities, The average car in inner London is responsible for £7,714 costs in health damage, with costs twice that for diesel cars in the heart of the city, the study found.
Dr Christian Brand, from the University of Oxford and UK Energy Research Centre, said: "Cars and vans are responsible for 10,000 early deaths each year, and diesel vehicles are the main problem unfortunately.
"The valuation of health effects associated with diesel vehicles are at least five times greater than those associated with petrol vehicles, and around 20 times greater than battery electric vehicles."
Chris Large from charity Global Action Plan said: “Swapping one in four car journeys in urban areas for walking or cycling could save over £1.1 billion in health damage costs per year. Switching 1 million cars from diesel to electric would save more than £360 million per year in health costs from local air pollution.”
The research found London tops the league of worst UK cities for the costs to the NHS of pollution from cars and vans, totalling £605 million, while Birmingham's vehicles cost around £150 million.
Earlier this year England’s chief medical officer said families should switch off all gadgets at night to prevent potentially deadly risks from light pollution.
Dame Sally Davies said exposure to a “daily cocktail of pollutants” – including poor air, light, noise and chemicals – was fuelling tens of thousands of cancer, lung and heart deaths.
And she said a “horrifying” lack of awareness of the dangers meant families were putting themselves at risk on a daily basis. Her annual report called for urgent action to reduce exposure to pollution, and far more research into specific threats, such as that which may be posed by blue light from smartphones.
Last month the Government’s clean air strategy announced a ban on wood burner stoves that pump out too much smoke, along with certain types of car tyres and brakes, cleaning solvents, fertilisers and solid fuels.
Ministers said air pollution is the fourth-biggest threat to health after cancer, heart disease and obesity, as they launched plans to cut pollution from diesel and petrol-driven vehicles.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, has already announced that all new cars and vans will have to be effectively zero emission by 2040.