Air Pollution - what it means for your health
DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHERE I LIVE?
People often ask whether they should move home to reduce the risks to their health from exposure to air pollution. This is a difficult question to answer.
What
we do know:
- For an individual pollutant, levels vary across the country. Levels also vary between different places in the same area e.g. beside roads.
- Levels of some pollutants vary more than others and levels of different pollutants are higher in different areas. For example, ozone is higher in rural areas but particles are higher in urban areas.
- Air pollution can worsen the symptoms of heart or lung disease in some people but not in others.
- Some studies find that asthma symptoms are greater in those living beside roads but other studies do not.
What we do not know:
- It may be unclear whether a person is truly sensitive to air pollution. For example, there are many triggers for asthma and reducing exposure to air pollution will not help if in fact it is another trigger that is more important.
- Despite the fact a person appears to be sensitive to air pollution, they may not know which pollutant is having an effect.
- It may not be obvious how much of a reduction in exposure is required to make a significant difference.
It is therefore very difficult to give advice which is relevant to everyone in the same area. Moving home is a major life event and may have other consequences for people's health. It is unlikely to be worthwhile for people to move simply because of concerns about possible effects of air pollution. However, if a person is in the process of moving, they could consider choosing a lower pollution area. Information is available (details at the end of this leaflet) on levels of air pollutants in different areas to enable people to make their own choice.
Page (HTML version) published 17 November 2002;
Page last modified
3 November, 2006