Air Quality Information and Resources
Air pollution in the UK harms our health and causes tens of thousands of premature deaths every year. We are calling for urgent action on air pollution.
This page provides links to useful information sources, reports and videos on air quality. If you know of other useful sources please send us details / links.
Friends of the Earth briefings
- Clean Air Schools: Assembly. You can download your fun school assembly – The assembly simply and creatively takes pupils through what air pollution is, the sources of dirty air, its health effects and the steps we can take to clean up our air. (Dec 2017)
- A Clean Air Budget 2017 Friends of the Earth calls for “a Clean Air budget” to rid the UK’s towns and cities of illegal pollution. (Nov 2017)
- Clean Air Schools Pack.Find lesson plans and more to help you educate pupils on air pollution. (Nov 2017)
- ‘Too little, too late’: a critique of the Air Quality Plan. This briefing provides a summary of key points in the government’s final Air Quality Plan for NO2 (2017), as well as a critique from Friends of the Earth. (Oct 2017)
- Friends of the Earth have been running a project in which local groups monitor air quality: see the short video and results report ‘Unmasked: The true story of the air you’re breathing‘ (July 2017)
- The EU Circular Economy and Clean Air packages under threat (2014 – pdf)
- Air pollution: The impact of the 1956 Clean Air Act (2014)
- Air Pollution (2013 – Word document) Local Authorities have responsibility for declaring Air Quality Management Areas where limits are not due to be met.
- Up in smoke – Why Friends of the Earth opposes incineration (2007 – pdf)
- Road transport, air pollution and health (2002 – pdf)
- Incineration and Health Issues (2002 – pdf)
- Summertime Smog (1999 – pdf)
Greater Manchester
- Great Air Manchester – the air quality website for the Greater Manchester region
- The Greater Manchester authorities work together in execution of their Local Air Quality Management duties. This is particularly the case for detailed air quality modelling work and collecting data for the local emissions inventory (EMIGMA).
- In February and March 2017, Manchester City Council formed an Air Quality Task and Finish group. You can read the minutes and reports from the meetings online: 17th February, 22nd February, 24th February, 24th March. For an overview, we would suggest Dr Ian Mudway’s presentation on 24th February, which starts approximately 32 minutes into the online video.
- Greater Manchester’s response to DEFRA Air Quality consultation (June 2017).
Health effects
- Air pollution is especially harmful to people who are living with lung conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, older people and children and developing babies are also at an increased risk of experiencing symptoms or other harmful effects from breathing in polluted air.
- Lung cancer: The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a part of the World Health Organisation, has for the first time labelled diesel exhausts as a definite cause of cancer. The findings are based on research in high-risk workers such as miners, railway workers and truck drivers, but the advice to reduce exposure is extended to the general population.