§ Mrs. BrintonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the effect on mortality and morbidity rates which would result from annual reductions in emissions of (i) 425,000 tonnes of SO2, (ii) 137,000 tonnes of NOx, (iii) 14,000 tonnes of fine particulates and (iv) 6,000 tonnes of black smoke; and what evaluation he has made of the estimates of mortality and morbidity given in quantification of the effects of air pollution on health in the United Kingdom (Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, 1998). [65334]
§ Ms JowellA detailed estimate of the effects of air pollution on health was published in a Report issued last year by the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP),Quantification of the Effects of Air Pollution on Health in the United Kingdom. The Committee concluded that current levels of air pollution probably play an important role in bringing forward the deaths of at least between 12,000 and 24,000 vulnerable people each year and a similar number of hospital 250W admissions, though it stressed that air pollution is likely to be one of a number of factors affecting the clinical condition of seriously ill people.
The review of the national air quality strategy, as announced by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 13 January 1999, Official Report, columns 214–15, re-examines the prospects for reducing emissions of eight pollutants covered by the Strategy and the effect that this would have on ambient levels of air pollution. This Department's Report, Economic Appraisal of the Health Effects of Air Pollution, also published yesterday in association with the review, contains an overview of the health effects of air pollution adding to that presented in the COMEAP Report.