The clean air challenge - Andrea Lee and Dr Suzanne Bartington

Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. World Health Organisation data shows that 9 out of 10 people breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits. And UK air pollution is 'linked to 40,000 early deaths a year'

The podcast is in support of the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies.

This episode explores the links between air pollution and transport.

Featuring on the podcast:
Andrea Lee - Campaigns and Policy Manager, Clean Air at Client Earth and Dr Suzanne Bartington from the University of Birmingham who is a Clinical Research Fellow in Environmental Health and Honorary Consultant in Public Health.

In 2013 Ella Addo-Kissi-Deborah died at the age of 9. In the Coroner - Philip Barlow’s - report he highlighted the medical cause of death as:

1a) Acute respiratory failure
1b) Severe asthma
1c) Air pollution exposure

Ella is the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as the cause of death on their death certificate; the implications of this are explored in the podcast.

About the speakers:

Andrea is the Clean Air Campaigns and Policy Manager for environmental law organisation ClientEarth, which has successfully challenged the UK Government in court for failing to meet legal levels of air pollution. Andrea has worked in sustainability and sustainable transport projects for more than 15 years and has been part of the clean air team at ClientEarth since 2013.

At ClientEarth, she campaigns for a national network of Clean Air Zones to urgently reduce illegal levels of air pollution, alongside measures to provide help and support for people and businesses to quickly move on to cleaner forms of transport. She is also campaigning for new clean air legislation to better protect people’s health and ensure that the UK meets stronger World Health Organization guideline levels for air pollution by 2030 at the latest.

A strong believer in the importance of collaborating and bringing out different voices, Andrea also coordinates the Healthy Air Campaign. Together this national coalition of health, transport and environmental NGOs is advocating for more ambitious action at all levels of government to tackle air pollution.”

Dr Suzanne Bartington (Principal Investigator) is a Clinical Research Fellow in Environmental Health in the Institute of Applied Health Research and Honorary Consultant in Public Health at Public Health England. Her research portfolio extends across three core themes: (i) health and environmental impacts of ambient and indoor air pollution; (ii) sustainable transport mobilities specifically links between active travel infrastructure and health; (ii) environmental public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Suzanne has cross-cutting interests in development of new methods for monitoring, analysing and modelling impacts of air quality and application of mixed-methods approaches for public health intervention evaluation. Existing research includes studies funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).