Economic and Social Research Council
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Ignoring air pollution warnings

Do air pollution warnings help or hinder those with respiratory diseases?

The UK Government provides daily air pollution forecasts for vulnerable people. Unfortunately, for most people the cost of avoiding air pollution seems to be larger than the perceived benefits, resulting in a muted response to air pollution warnings – that’s the conclusion of research by Dr Katharina Janke of the University of Lancaster and CMPO, University of Bristol.

This combines daily data on air pollution forecasts, levels of air pollution and hospital emergency admissions for respiratory diseases in children aged five to 19 years from 2002 to 2008.

Estimating the relationship between hospital admissions and air pollution warnings while controlling for actual levels of air pollution essentially compares days with a certain level of air pollution for which a warning was issued, with days with the same level of air pollution for which no warning was issued. If parents and children respond to warnings with preventative measures, there should be fewer hospital admissions on days for which a warning was issued.

For all respiratory admissions, there is no effect. For the subset of admissions for acute respiratory infections (pneumonia and bronchitis) there is no effect. Only for another subset of respiratory admissions – admissions for asthma – do air pollution warnings reduce hospital emergency admissions, by about eight per cent.

Since standard advice for asthmatics is to adjust the dose of their reliever medicine and to make sure they carry their inhaler with them when high levels of air pollution are forecast, it is less costly for them to respond to an air pollution warning. Other types of respiratory disease require far more disruptive measures such as staying indoors – making the cost of responding to a warning larger than the perceived gains.

Further information

This article was originally published in our Britain in 2016 magazine.

 

Channel website: http://www.esrc.ac.uk

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