Air quality in Nottinghamshire is causing more premature deaths than alcohol and road traffic incidents put together, a new report has found.

Plans are now being set out to discover what can be done locally to resolve the issue.

A strategy for the next 10 years, put together by Nottingham City Council, shows how stark the danger is. 

It quotes Public Health England (PHE) figures which showed in 2017, 450 deaths were attributable to man-made air pollution in the county, and 183 in the city. 

Estimates for the same period, also by PHE, show there were 405 deaths related to alcohol consumption in the county, and 153 in the city. 

Again in the same period, there were 28 deaths in the county and five in the city from road traffic accidents.

An electric street sweeper pictured in Nottingham's Old Market Square
An electric street sweeper pictured in Nottingham's Old Market Square

Experts now say human-made air pollution is responsible for 5.7 percent of all adult deaths in Notts, and 6.3 percent in Nottingham.

Not only does it cause premature deaths, it also causes and exacerbates several health conditions, and the report makes clear improving air quality would mean: “thousands fewer cases of asthma, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and lung cancer over the next 10 years and related improvements in quality of life.”

It goes on to say there are no safe levels of exposure below which there is no risk of health effects of air pollution, and that it: “can negatively affect the development of babies during pregnancy and normal lung function growth of children and contributes towards asthma and other breathing and lung conditions.”

Air quality in Nottingham is better than many other UK cities, and the city council already has a range of policies in place to reduce air pollution.

These include a ban on motorists - including taxi drivers - leaving their engines idling when stationary.

As well as having a large fleet of electric and biogas buses, the council’s bus company NCT is completing the last few retrofits to its older diesel buses to fit them with the latest emissions standard, known as Euro VI.

But while awareness and concern about air pollution has increased, our understanding has, too.

Councillor Sally Longford is the city’s environmental boss, and deputy leader of the council.

As a child in Nottingham in the 50s and 60s, she remembers being sent home from school frequently every winter because of the air pollution.

Councillor Sally Longford
Councillor Sally Longford

She said: “People were aware of it, but I think we thought it was part of life, there were no alternatives.

“The expectation was that there were periods when it was smoggy.

“Nottingham was an industrial city and there was a really acute problem.

“It’s only really in the last few years that there’s been growing awareness of the health consideration that can be tremendously damaging, particularly to more vulnerable people, to children and the elderley.

“I do think people are ready for action. For instance we’ve got this anti-idling policy which is being softly introduced, and we’re committing to enforcement, and the purpose of that is to educate people and change their behaviour.

“Because people are sitting outside schools, often where their own children attend, with their engine running which is crazy.”

Speaking about taxi ranks where drivers are leaving engines running, she said: “It’s drawing their attention to the fact they are actually poisoning each other, and it’s profit they are burning - the very thing they are trying to make.”

While there are many types of air pollution, the ones of most concern locally because of the health effects can be broadly categorised as nitrous oxides and particulate matter.

Nitrous oxides - Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and Nitrogen oxide (NO) - are gases released when fuels are burned, such as petrol, diesel or natural gas from domestic boilers.

Particulate matters are a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, and smoke, are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye but others are microscopic. 

The second category is particularly difficult to tackle locally, in part because the wind can carry it far from the original source, which is likely to be far outside the city’s boundaries.

Councillor Longford, who represents Lenton and Wollaton East for Labour, said we are still at an early stage of fully understanding the effects of particulates on human health.

She said: “In the same way the Victorians didn’t understand about how people got stomach problems from drinking dirty water, we’re still at the stage of understanding the basics of particulates and the impacts on health.”

But clean air expert Richard Taylor, who works for the city council, said while there remained a lot to do, he was optimistic the situation will improve in coming years.

He said concern about other environmental factors such as climate change could lead to a ‘virtuous circle’ with knock-on effects for other environmental issues, including air pollution.

“Most people accept that climate change is a clear and present danger and that something needs to be done about it. The solutions to climate change improve air quality. It reduces emissions of all sorts.

“So it might be tricky to get people out of their cars from an air quality point of view, but they will think about climate change, and therefore they will change their travel behaviour and vehicle usage if they’re concerned about climate change.”