Dr Harrie Larrington-Spencer, a Research Fellow in Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, has co-written the section about active travel for the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report on air pollution for this year.
The independent report lays out the scale of the challenge of reducing air pollution, the substantial progress that has been made and highlights achievable solutions to tackling air pollution.
Its chapters cover areas including air pollution and health, outdoor air pollution emissions and recent trends, how air pollution is changing, and outdoor and indoor air pollution solutions.
Dr Larrington-Spencer and co-author Dr Eleanor Roaf, Director of Public Health at Trafford Council, wrote Section 4.4 of Chapter 4 of the report which looks at active travel. They note that take-up of active travel – walking, wheeling, and cycling – has declined significantly since the 1950s and that reversing the decline would have significant health benefits. Improvements to active travel infrastructure was also suggested as a way to safely increase take-up in all age groups.
Speaking about her contribution to the report, Dr Larrington-Spencer said: “Air pollution, of which road transport is a significant contributor, is responsible for up to 38,000 deaths in the UK every year. In our section on active travel, we outline how increasing [the] share of journeys made by active travel can contribute to reductions in air pollution emissions from motorised transport and improve population health through increased physical activity.
“Active travel can also help to address health disparities in inner city areas and on busy main roads, where air quality is often worse, and residents tend to have lower incomes and experience increased risk of pollution-related long-term health conditions.”
Read the full report on the UK Government’s website.
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