Air Pollution and Health

In spite of the Covid crisis, the effects of air pollution on our health can still make the headlines. Only this week (October 21^st) we learn that polluted air kills half a million babies a year across the globe; and that air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for premature death, involved in over 6 million deaths a year worldwide. In the UK, 40,000 deaths a year are attributed to air pollution. In this lecture I will explore the science behind these values. How do we estimate all this mortality and what are the uncertainties? What pollutants are responsible and what can we do about them? Are things getting better or worse? What political obstacles are there in the way of improvement? And inevitably, since we can’t ignore the present situation, does air pollution affect the response to Covid-19? And what does the reduction in economic activity due to lockdowns tell us about pollution sources?

As our understanding of air pollution has evolved it has generated new insights not only about the natural environment but about the human body itself, and I hope to share some of these with you in this talk.

The Lecturer

After a first degree in biochemistry, Richard Skeffington became more interested in understanding the workings of the environment, and his PhD morphed from the molecular level to a study of physiological ecology. After working for a few years on heavy metals and land reclamation, he joined the research arm of the publicly-owned electricity industry to research the environmental effects of electricity generation and their mitigation, in particular the effects of air pollution. He continued this role in the privatised industry before leaving in 1999 to join the University of Reading as Research Professor of Geography. At Reading he worked on measuring and modelling water quality and climate change, and also taught undergraduate and masters courses in air and water pollution (among other topics!). He retired in 2018 but maintains an interest in these fields.